Astronaut dies in space?

The only human fatalities in space (above 100km) were of the three cosmonauts aboard the Soyuz 11. Although they died in space, their capsule was already in its descent towards the surface of the Earth. Their bodies were found dead inside the capsule. The cosmonauts were given a large state funeral and buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis at Red Square, Moscow.

But we really need to know more about the conditions of the death, before we could tell you what, exactly, would happen. How did the death occur? Is contamination a concern? Is a retrieval possible? Are there other survivors with the deceased? Is the craft scheduled to return, or be docked? Is it in a stable orbit? Will the orbit decay before a safe retrieval launch window occurs? If the body can be returned to Earth, most likely it would.

In early science fiction, the bodies would be ejected to reduce fuel consumption but in reality, the fuel is used in escaping Earth's gravity and aerodynamic drag is used to slow it down during re-entry hence saving fuel is not a concern. What is a concern is that the re-entry would've been calculated for a range of mass which included the astronaut, indeed on Apollo 13, they had to bring junk from the lunar lander onto the command capsule to replace the missing mass of rock samples. With modern computers, the return trajectory could be recalculated over a broader range but it would still be safest to bring the body to Earth, if it can be done without having it be a biohazard to the rest of the crew. Bringing it back would allow a proper post mortem documenting the cause of the death and a respectful burial. If an airlock was available, the vacuum of space could help preserve the body as well as isolate it from the crew, otherwise a spacesuit could be used to isolate it from the rest of the crew.

If in orbit, let it freeze to preserve the body and then bring it back. I do not see the problem here... this is all part of the contingency plans for every manned mission to date. Just because it has not happened so far is not a reason to skip planning for the eventuality of a death in space. There have been many casualties, mainly Russian, where cosmonauts died during reentry. There was one mission where three died when a valve was opened by mistake which let the air out of the capsule and 3 men died on the way down. Alive when they did the retro burn, and dead minutes later on the ground.

That would depend entirely on the scenario. IF he died outside of his capsule or ship and there were no way to retrieve him, he'd most likely be left out there until he fell to Earth and burned up. If he were in a capsule with no one to navigate it back to Earth and no means of controlling it, same thing. To many variables to answer such a question.

Determination of what would become of the body would pass to the closest families wish.

His body will be bring to Earth for postmortem.

It would be brought home for burial.

nothing, there are several still up there including laika the dog which died within hours of space

the body will be thrown in the space, and it will travel until it reaches centre of the milky way, where he will get his life back but no transport..lol..