How humankind went into outer space for the first time in history
Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov spent 12 minutes in outer space and almost died while trying to get back into the spaceship.
On March 18, 1965, at 11:35, Alexei Leonov left the airlock of the ‘Voskhod-2’ spacecraft: “The first minute took my breath away: bright sun, black sky, incredible silence!”
Leonov was wearing a special spacesuit with a multi-layer sealed shell that maintained the necessary pressure and protected the cosmonaut from the thermal effects of the sun’s rays.
Leonov moved 5.35 meters away from the airlock — the full length of the safety cable. Free floating lasted 12 minutes and nine seconds and the whole time the process was monitored by Pavel Belyaev, the second cosmonaut on ‘Voskhod-2’.
However, a dangerous situation arose when returning to the airlock. “Because of the huge difference in pressure inside and outside, the spacesuit increased in size, my fingers ‘swelled up’ so much that I could neither hold the camera nor grab the handrails to enter the ship,” Leonov recalled.
He had to take a risk – reduce the pressure to an emergency level: “The pulse was simply frantic, sweat was pouring down, the temperature jumped.”
Leonov returned safely on board, but another unpleasantness occurred upon returning to Earth – the automatic orientation system of the ship failed. Belyaev had to land manually.
Alexei Leonov and Pavel Belyaev.
The cosmonauts landed in the snowy taiga. They were discovered almost immediately, but it was only possible to evacuate them three days later.
For their historic flight, Alexei Leonov and Pavel Belyaev were awarded the title ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’.
