When alexei leonov made the world's first spacewalk in 1965 it was hailed as
yet another great success from the USSR in the space race against America. It was
only after the fall of the Soviet Union that the West found out that whilst it
may have been made to look like a success by the Soviet press, it was in
fact teetering on the edge of disaster from a moment Leonov stepped out of the
airlock to the point when the crew were rescued from a desolate location in a
frozen forest. In 1961 Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth to become the first
human being to travel into outer space. Immediately on his return Gagarin toured
the world again but this time grinning to international crowds as a celebrity
ambassador for the Soviet Union, the Russians were apparently winning the
space race with six Vostok manned missions between 1961 and 1963 however
the pressure was on the next Soviet space program had to maintain this
momentum. The first plans to adapt the Vostok capsule were originally named
"advance" and eventually would become to be known as "sunrise" or in Russian
"Voskhod". In America the Gemini mission was aiming to fly multi-crew missions
and astronaut Ed White was in training to make the first spacewalk or "extra
vehicular activity" or EVA. Sergei Korolev the designer in charge of
the Soviet space program believed they could still beat the Americans to the
punch. Adapting the Vostok single-seat design, the first Voskhod capsule
squeezed three couches at 90 degrees angles to the central spacecraft
controls. The capsule was so cramped that the crew had to adhere to a strict diet
just to fit in their seats. Designers considered every way to save
weight and space. For example the ejection seat mechanism was removed this
meant that if anything went wrong in the first two and a half minutes after
launch there was no way out. This was undoubtedly a risky setup, Voskhods
rocket was also adapted a larger version of the R7 uprated to reach for highest
ever manned orbit. But the first flight of Voskhod in October 1964 was a success
and in the first months of 1965 Voskhod 2 was prepared and
readied at the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. On the morning of March 18th
1965 Voskhod 2 lifted off, again setting records for speed and altitude in a
manned space flight upon reaching orbit cosmonaut Pavel Belyayev inflated the
fabric airlock, a seven minute process after which Alexei Leonov climbed out to
gain the first unencumbered view of the earth from 475km
295 miles in space. Leonov attached an external camera to film the
historic spacewalk and appears carefree on the footage but off camera the first
maneuvers were clumsy as he pushed himself away from a spacecraft he
immediately entered a spin, jolting to a stop at the end of his five meter 17
foot tether. After a few moments Leonov noticed that his spacesuit was becoming
misshapen, it was unexpectedly ballooning in the
vacuum of space. His hands and feet were slipping out of the boots and gloves and
he realized but it might soon become impossible to re-enter the narrow
airlock. He only had about five minutes of daylight left before the craft will
be on the night side and it will become totally dark outside. Without referring
to ground control Leonov made the decision to slowly vent
air from his suit until there was less than half the pressure remaining but
then meant he ran the risk of suffering from decompression sickness.
The low pressure worked and the suit regained its correct size.
Leonov finally pulled himself into the airlock headfirst when he should have
gone in feet first causing him to struggle as he tried to turn around in
the narrow airlock. This extra struggling caused his body temperature to sore
approaching the danger zone for heatstroke. Eventually Leonov made it
back into the capsule humankind had walked in space for the first time and
ground control radioed their congratulations. Leonov's relief must
have been palpable in a recent interview he revealed that his spacesuit had been
fitted with a suicide pill in case it wasn't able to make it back in. However
the danger was far from over after Belyayev jettisoned the
airlock he discovered that the hatch wouldn't seal properly and worse
Voskhods automatic climate control system was trying to compensate by increasing
the oxygen pressure in the capsule. In this super oxygenated environment any
spark could ignite an unstoppable fire, the very scenario which had killed
Valentin Bondarenko four years earlier as he was in training to become a
cosmonaut and what would go on to kill the crew of Apollo 1 in 1967. But
Voskhod 2 was lucky, there was no spark and the cosmonauts worked to lower the
temperature and humidity, slowing for rising the oxygen pressure. It wasn't the
end of the problems with a mission. Voskhod was fitted with an automated
re-entry system but it failed to work on the next orbit the crew had to make
a manual re-entry burn instead, something no one had done before and would give
them little control of where they would land. They made the decision to try and
land in the Taiga a vast almost uninhabited forest in the far north of
Russia. The Voskhod was so cramped that after the
re-entry procedure was started it took 46 seconds were two men wearing their
spacesuits to return to their seats to restore the craft center of mass. This 46
second delay changed their trajectory and pushed the craft 386 kilometers from
its intended landing point. As the spacecraft began re-entry
the service module failed to separate causing Voskhod to tumble back and forth
until finally the connecting straps burned up in the heat of re-entry. During
its descent Voshod 2 flew right over Moscow's Red
Square, Leonov joked to Belyayev "We could land
there if you want" before the craft flew further north and finally landed at 9:02
GMT on March the 19th in the thick snowy forests of the Ural Mountains. As re-entry
had been significantly of course no one at ground control actually knew where
they were the crew had to spend the night in the woods in minus 25 degrees C.
As they waited for their emergency radio transmissions to be picked up and their
position located. The capsules heating system also failed to work and Leonov
spacesuit was fall to his ankles with sweat, he later said it was so bad but
he'd lost 6kg during the flight. Wringing the moisture
from their clothes as best they could but cosmonauts watched for wolves until
the recovery crew arrived the next day. But the area was so heavily forested that
the helicopter had to land 9km away and the rescuers had to ski to the
Voskhod to craft with warm clothes food and of course film cameras.
Despite being hailed internationally for its success, the numerous failures of the
Voskhod 2 led to the cancellation of a program. Leonov's famous spacewalk
effectively marked the end of the Soviet supremacy in space. The head of the Soviet
space program died unexpectedly a few months later in 1966 but the OKB-1
design bureau pushed on to develop the Soyuz, a much more capable orbital
vehicle which was first operated in 1967 any still in use today
and has proven itself to be the most reliable long-term ride into orbit to
date. So thanks for watching and I just like to remind you about the curious
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