50 years ago, Alexei Leonov was the first in history to go into the airless space.

Half a century ago, on March 18, 1965, Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov made the first human spacewalk in history.

The experiment was planned as part of the expedition of the Voskhod-2 spacecraft, which launched on the same Thursday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in the Kazakh SSR. The crew of the ship was commander Pavel Belyaev and pilot Alexei Leonov. On the occasion of the anniversary, 360 Moscow Region has prepared five interesting facts about this significant event.

Too much radiation

Even during the launch of the spacecraft (SC) into orbit, problems began. The fact is that Voskhod-2, due to a technical error, moved away from the Earth by 495 kilometers instead of 350 kilometers, as planned. At the same time, the radiation layer, which is detrimental to humans, is located at a distance of 500 kilometers from the Planet.

The dose of radiation received by the cosmonauts was 70 billion rad, which is almost two times higher than during the Voskhod-1 expedition. If at that moment high-intensity solar wind streams passed near the Earth, the astronauts could die.

The main thing is that the suit sits

To enter the airless space, OKB-1 employees developed the Berkut spacesuit, which, unlike modern extravehicular suits, did not allow regenerating the air exhaled by the astronaut. In the "Berkut", designed for a 30-minute stay in outer space, Alexei Leonov five times moved away from the spacecraft "Voskhod-2" at a distance of up to 5.35 meters.

However, when the astronaut wanted to return to the airlock, he realized that due to the pressure difference, the spacesuit was inflated. Leonov had to, risking his life, reduce the pressure inside the Berkut and, violating safety rules, get into the airlock head first. As a result, the astronaut still managed to return to the spacecraft.

CCTV

Leonov spent 23 minutes and 41 seconds in vacuum. The historical event was observed by video cameras installed on the outer surface of the Voskhod-2 spacecraft. The image from them was transmitted to the Earth, in addition, the cosmonaut himself also filmed video using the S-97 camera.

Rough landing

During the return of the spacecraft to the Planet on March 19, the spacecraft's automatic landing system failed, so the cosmonauts had to land Voskhod-2 manually. The landing was carried out in an unplanned place - in the taiga, 180 kilometers from Perm. Pavel Belyaev and Alexei Leonov were discovered only four hours later, and the heroes were evacuated only two days later, and the astronauts had to use skis to get to the helicopter landing pad.

space race

Domestic cosmonauts managed to overtake the American astronauts at this checkpoint of the space race. US Representative Edward White did the first spacewalk on June 3, 1965. Apparently, because of this, the phrase "Triumph of the country of the Soviets" was printed on Soviet postage stamps dedicated to the feat of Pavel Belyaev and Alexei Leonov.

Since the first human spacewalk, 729 walks in airless outer space have been made with a total duration of more than four thousand hours. Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya stepped outside her spacecraft on July 25, 1984, becoming the first woman to walk in outer space. In total, 210 people visited the airless space. The record holder for the number of spacewalks is Anatoly Solovyov - he has 16 of them with a total duration of more than 78 hours.

In preparation for the flight, Belyaev and Leonov worked out all the actions and possible emergency situations during spacewalks during ground training, as well as in short-term weightlessness on board an aircraft flying along a parabolic trajectory.

On March 18, 1965, at 10:00 Moscow time, the Voskhod-2 spacecraft with cosmonauts Pavel Belyaev and Alexei Leonov successfully launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome. Immediately after the ascent into orbit, already at the end of the first orbit, the crew began to prepare for Leonov's spacewalk. Belyaev helped Leonov to put on the back of an individual life support system with oxygen supply.

The locking was controlled by the commander of the ship Belyaev from the control panel installed in the cockpit. If necessary, Leonov could control the main locking operations from a remote control installed in the lock chamber.

Belyaev filled the lock chamber with air and opened the hatch connecting the cabin of the ship with the lock chamber. Leonov "floated" into the lock chamber, the commander of the ship, having closed the hatch into the chamber, began its depressurization.

At 11 hours 28 minutes 13 seconds, at the beginning of the second orbit, the ship's lock chamber was completely depressurized. At 11:32:54 a.m., the airlock hatch opened, and at 11:34:51 a.m. Leonov left the airlock and entered outer space. The cosmonaut was connected to the spacecraft by a 5.35-meter-long halyard, which included a steel cable and electrical wires for transferring data of medical observations and technical measurements to the spacecraft, as well as for telephone communication with the spacecraft commander.

In outer space, Leonov began to carry out the observations and experiments envisaged by the program. He made five withdrawals and approaches from the lock chamber, with the very first withdrawal made at a minimum distance - one meter - for orientation in new conditions, and the rest for the full length of the halyard. All this time, the spacesuit was maintained at "room" temperature, and its outer surface was heated in the sun to +60°C and cooled in the shade to -100°C. Pavel Belyaev, using a television camera and telemetry, followed Leonov's work and was ready, if necessary, to provide the necessary assistance to him.

After performing a series of experiments, Alexei Leonov received a command to return, but this was not easy to do. Due to the pressure difference in space, the suit swelled up, lost its flexibility, and Leonov could not squeeze into the airlock hatch. He made several unsuccessful attempts. The supply of oxygen in the suit was designed for only 20 minutes, which ended. Then the astronaut depressurized the spacesuit to emergency pressure. If by this time he had not had nitrogen washed out of his blood, he would have boiled and Leonov would have died. The suit shrunk, and contrary to the instructions to enter the airlock with his feet, he squeezed into it head first. Having closed the outer hatch, Leonov began to turn around, since he still had to enter the ship with his feet due to the fact that the lid that opened inwards ate up 30% of the cabin volume. It was difficult to turn around, since the inner diameter of the airlock was one meter, and the width of the suit at the shoulders was 68 centimeters. With great difficulty, Leonov managed to do this, and he was able to enter the ship with his feet, as expected.

Alexei Leonov at 11:47 entered the ship's lock chamber. And at 11 hours 51 minutes 54 seconds, after the hatch was closed, the pressurization of the airlock began. Thus, the pilot-cosmonaut was out of the ship in outer space for 23 minutes 41 seconds. According to the provisions of the International Sports Code, the net time spent by a person in outer space is calculated from the moment he appears from the airlock chamber (from the edge of the exit hatch of the ship) to the entrance back into the chamber. Therefore, the time spent by Alexei Leonov in open space outside the spacecraft is considered to be 12 minutes 09 seconds.

With the help of the onboard television system, the process of Alexei Leonov's exit into outer space, his work outside the spacecraft and his return to the spacecraft were transmitted to Earth and observed by a network of ground stations.

After returning to Leonov's cabin, the cosmonauts continued to carry out the experiments planned by the flight program.

There were several more emergency situations in flight, which, fortunately, did not lead to a tragedy. One of these situations arose during the return: the system of automatic orientation to the Sun did not work, and therefore the braking propulsion system did not turn on in time. The cosmonauts were supposed to land in automatic mode on the seventeenth orbit, but due to the failure of the automation caused by the “shooting off” of the lock chamber, they had to go to the next, eighteenth orbit and land using the manual control system. This was the first manual landing, and during its implementation it was found that it was impossible to look into the porthole from the cosmonaut's working chair and assess the position of the ship in relation to the Earth. It was possible to start braking only while sitting in a seat in a fastened state. Due to this contingency, the accuracy required during the descent was lost. As a result, the cosmonauts landed on March 19 far from the calculated landing point, in the deep taiga, 180 kilometers northwest of Perm.

We did not find them right away, tall trees prevented the landing of helicopters. Therefore, the astronauts had to spend the night near the fire, using parachutes and spacesuits for insulation. The next day, in the undergrowth, a few kilometers from the landing site of the crew, a rescue party descended to clear the site for a small helicopter. A group of rescuers on skis reached the astronauts. Rescuers built a log hut, where they equipped sleeping places for the night. On March 21, the site for receiving the helicopter was prepared, and on the same day, the cosmonauts arrived in Perm aboard the Mi-4, from where they made an official report on the completion of the flight.

On October 20, 1965, the International Aviation Federation (FAI) approved the world record for the duration of a person's stay in outer space outside the spacecraft of 12 minutes 09 seconds, and the absolute record for the maximum flight altitude of the Voskhod-2 spacecraft above the Earth's surface - 497.7 kilometers. The FAI awarded Alexei Leonov the highest award - the Gold Medal "Cosmos" for the first spacewalk in the history of mankind, the USSR pilot-cosmonaut Pavel Belyaev was awarded a diploma and a medal from the FAI.

The first spacewalk was performed by Soviet cosmonauts 2.5 months earlier than the Americans. The first American in space was Edward White, who performed a spacewalk on June 3, 1965, during his flight on the Gemini-4 spacecraft (Gemini-4). The duration of stay in open space was 22 minutes.

Over the past years, the range of tasks solved by cosmonauts outside spaceships and stations has increased significantly. The modernization of space suits has been constantly carried out and is being carried out. As a result, the duration of a person's stay in the vacuum of space in one exit has increased many times over. Today, spacewalks are an obligatory part of the program of all expeditions to the International Space Station. During exits, scientific research, repair work, installation of new equipment on the outer surface of the station, launch of small satellites and much more are carried out.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

On March 18, 1965, Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov made the first spacewalk in the history of mankind.

The event occurred during the flight of the Voskhod-2 spacecraft. The commander of the ship is Pavel Ivanovich Belyaev, the pilot is Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov.

The ship was equipped with an inflatable lock chamber "Volga". Before the launch, the chamber folded and measured 70 cm in diameter and 77 cm in length. In space, the chamber was inflated and had the following dimensions: 2.5 meters in length, inner diameter - 1 meter, outer - 1.2 meters. Camera weight - 250 kg. Before deorbiting, the camera fired back from the ship.
The space suit "Berkut" was designed to go into space. He provided a stay in outer space for 30 minutes. The first exit took 23 minutes 41 seconds (outside the ship 12 minutes 9 seconds).
It is interesting that the training before this flight was carried out on board the Tu-104AK aircraft, in which a life-size model of the Voskhod-2 spacecraft with a real lock chamber was installed (it was she who flew into space later). During the flight of an aircraft along a parabolic trajectory, when weightlessness set in for several minutes, the cosmonauts practiced exit in a spacesuit through an airlock.
Voskhod-2 launched on March 18, 1965 at 10:00 Moscow time. The airlock was already inflated on the first turn. Both astronauts were in space suits. According to the program, Belyaev was supposed to help Leonov return to the ship in the event of an emergency.
The spacewalk began on the second orbit. Leonov moved into the lock chamber and Belyaev closed the hatch behind him. Then the air from the chamber was vented and at 11:32:54 Belyaev opened the outer hatch of the lock chamber from his remote control in the ship. At 11:34:51 Alexei Leonov left the airlock and ended up in outer space.

Leonov gently pushed off and felt the ship tremble from his push. The first thing he saw was the black sky. Belyaev's voice was immediately heard:
- "Diamond-2" began to exit. Movie camera on? - the commander addressed this question to his comrade.
- Understood. I am Almaz-2. I take off the lid. Throw away. Caucasus! Caucasus! I see the Caucasus below me! Began to withdraw (from the ship).
Before throwing the lid away, Leonov thought for a second whether to send it into satellite orbit or down to Earth. Thrown to the ground. The astronaut's pulse was 164 beats per minute, the moment of exit was very tense.
Belyaev transmitted to Earth:
-Attention! The man went into outer space!
The television image of Leonov soaring against the background of the Earth was broadcast on all television channels.

12 minutes… The total weight of the “exit suit” was close to 100 kg… Five times the cosmonaut flew away from the spacecraft and returned on a 5.35 m long halyard… All this time the “room” temperature was maintained in the suit, and its outer surface was heated in the sun to + 60 ° and cooled in the shade to -100 ° С ...
The flight of Vostok-2 went down in history twice. The first, official and open, said that everything went brilliantly. In the second, which was revealed gradually and was never published in detail, there are at least three emergency situations.
Leonov was observed on television and broadcast the image to Moscow. When leaving the ship for five meters, he waved his hand in open space. Leonov was outside the airlock for 12 minutes and 9 seconds. But it turned out that getting out was easier than going back. The suit swelled in space and could not fit into the airlock. Leonov was forced to relieve pressure in order to “lose weight” and make him softer. Still, he had to climb back not with his feet, as was planned, but with his head. All the vicissitudes of what happened during the return to the ship, we found out only after the landing of the astronauts.
A.A.Leonov's spacesuit, after being in space, lost its flexibility and did not allow the astronaut to enter the hatch. A.A. Leonov made attempt after attempt, but to no avail. The situation was complicated by the fact that the supply of oxygen in the spacesuit was designed for only twenty minutes, and each failure increased the degree of risk to the astronaut's life. Leonov limited the flow of oxygen, but from excitement and exertion, his pulse and breathing rate increased sharply, which means that more oxygen was required. S.P. Korolev tried to calm him down, instill confidence. On Earth, they heard the reports of A.A. Leonov: “I can’t, I couldn’t again.”
According to the cyclogram, Aleksey had to swim into the chamber with his feet, then, having fully entered the airlock, close the hatch behind him and seal it. In reality, he had to bleed the air from the spacesuit almost to critical pressure. After several attempts, the cosmonaut decided to "float" into the cabin face forward. He succeeded, but at the same time he hit the glass of the helmet against its wall. It was scary - because the glass could burst. At 08:49 UTC, the airlock exit hatch was closed and at 08:52 UTC pressurization of the airlock began.
TASS message dated March 18, 1965:
Today, March 18, 1965, at 11:30 Moscow time, during the flight of the Voskhod-2 spacecraft, a man's exit into outer space was carried out for the first time. On the second circuit of the flight, co-pilot pilot-cosmonaut Lieutenant Colonel Leonov Alexei Arkhipovich, in a special spacesuit with an autonomous life support system, made an exit into outer space, retired from the ship at a distance of up to five meters, successfully carried out a set of planned studies and observations and safely returned to the ship. With the help of the onboard television system, the process of Comrade Leonov's exit into outer space, his work outside the spacecraft, and his return to the spacecraft were transmitted to Earth and observed by a network of ground stations. The state of health of Comrade Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov during his stay outside the ship and after returning to the ship is good. The commander of the ship, comrade Pavel Ivanovich Belyaev, is also feeling well.

After returning to the ship, the troubles continued.
The second emergency was an incomprehensible pressure drop in the cabin pressurization cylinders from 75 to 25 atmospheres after Leonov's return. It was necessary to land no later than the 17th orbit, although Grigory Voronin, the chief designer of this part of the life system, reassured that there would be enough oxygen for another day. Here is how Alexei Arkhipovich describes the events:
... the partial pressure of oxygen (in the cabin) began to grow, which reached 460 mm and continued to grow. This is at a rate of 160 mm! But after all, 460 mm is explosive gas, because Bondarenko burned out on this ... At first we sat in a daze. Everyone understood, but they could do almost nothing: they completely removed the humidity, removed the temperature (it became 10-12 °). And the pressure is growing ... The slightest spark - and everything would turn into a molecular state, and we understood this. Seven hours in this state, and then fell asleep ... apparently from stress. Then we figured out that I had touched the boost switch with a hose from the spacesuit ... What actually happened? Since the ship was stabilized relative to the Sun for a long time, then, naturally, a deformation arose; after all, on the one hand, cooling to -140 ° C, on the other, heating to + 150 ° C ... The sensors for closing the hatch worked, but a gap remained. The regeneration system began to build up pressure, and oxygen began to grow, we did not have time to consume it ... The total pressure reached 920 mm. These several tons of pressure pressed down the hatch - and the pressure growth stopped. Then the pressure began to drop before our eyes.
Further more. TDU (brake propulsion system) did not work in automatic mode and the ship continued to fly. The crew was given the command to land the ship in manual mode on the 18th or 22nd orbit. Here is another quote from Leonov:
We went over Moscow, inclination 65°. We had to land exactly on this turn, and we ourselves chose the area for landing - 150 km from Solikamsk with a heading angle of 270 °, because there was taiga. No businesses, no power lines. They could land in Kharkov, in Kazan, in Moscow, but it was dangerous. The version that we got there due to imbalance is complete nonsense. We ourselves chose the landing site, as it was safer and possible deviations in the engine operation shifted the landing point also to safe areas. Only it was impossible to land in China - then relations were very tense. As a result, at a speed of 28,000 km / h, we sat down only 80 km from our calculated point. This is a good result. And then there were no reserve landing sites. And we weren't expected...
Finally, a report came in from a search helicopter. He discovered a red parachute and two astronauts 30 kilometers southwest of the city of Bereznyaki. The dense forest and deep snow made it impossible for helicopters to land near the astronauts. There were no settlements nearby either.
Landing in the deep taiga was the last emergency in the history of Voskhod-2. The cosmonauts spent the night in the forest of the Northern Urals. Helicopters could only fly over them and report that “one is chopping wood, the other is putting it on the fire.”
Warm clothes and food were dropped from helicopters to the cosmonauts, but Belyaev and Leonov could not be pulled out of the taiga. A group of skiers with a doctor, who landed one and a half kilometers away, reached them through the snow in four hours, but did not dare to take them out of the taiga.
A real competition unfolded for the salvation of the astronauts. The landfill service, encouraged by Tyulin and Korolev, sent its rescue expedition to Perm, led by Lieutenant Colonel Belyaev and the foreman of our plant, Lygin. From Perm, they got by helicopter to a site two kilometers from Voskhod-2 and soon hugged the astronauts. Marshal Rudenko forbade his rescue service to evacuate astronauts from the ground to a hovering helicopter. They stayed in the taiga for a second cold night, although now they had a tent, warm fur uniforms and plenty of food. It came to Brezhnev. He was convinced that lifting astronauts into a helicopter hovering near the ground was a dangerous business.
Brezhnev agreed and approved a proposal to cut down trees nearby to prepare a landing site.
When we landed, we were not immediately found ... We sat in spacesuits for two days, we had no other clothes. On the third day we were pulled out of there. Because of the sweat, my suit was knee-deep in moisture, about 6 liters. So in the legs and bubbling. Then, already at night, I say to Pasha: "Well, that's it, I'm cold." We took off our suits, stripped naked, wrung out our underwear, put it back on. Then the screen-vacuum thermal insulation was sporulated. They threw away all the hard part, and put the rest on themselves. These are nine layers of aluminized foil, covered with dederon on top. Parachute lines were wrapped around the top like two sausages. And so they stayed there for the night. And at 12 noon a helicopter arrived and landed 9 km away. Another helicopter in a basket lowered Yura Lygin directly towards us. Then Slava Volkov (Vladislav Volkov, future cosmonaut of TsKBEM) and others came to us on skis. They brought us warm clothes, poured brandy, and we gave them our alcohol - and life became more fun. The fire was lit, the boiler was put on. We washed. In about two hours they cut down a small hut for us, where we spent the night normally. There was even a bed.
On March 21, a helicopter landing site was prepared. And on the same day, on board the Mi-4, the cosmonauts arrived in Perm, from where they made an official report on the completion of the flight.
And yet, despite all the problems that arose during the flight, it was the first, very first exit of man into outer space. Here is how Alexey Leonov describes his impressions:
I want to tell you that the picture of the cosmic abyss that I saw, with its grandeur, immensity, brightness of colors and sharp contrasts of pure darkness with the dazzling radiance of the stars, simply struck and fascinated me. To complete the picture, imagine - against this background, I see our Soviet ship, illuminated by the bright light of the sun's rays. When I was leaving the gateway, I felt a powerful stream of light and heat, reminiscent of electric welding. Above me was a black sky and bright, unblinking stars. The sun seemed to me like a red-hot fiery disk ...

The beginning of the rapid study of the universe is considered to be April 12, 1961, when a man went into space for the first time and it was Yuri Gagarin, a citizen of the USSR. Year after year after his flight, more and more discoveries were made.

open space

Being outside a spaceship in one spacesuit is a risky business. Exactly 52 years ago, the pilot of the Soviet Union Alexei Leonov made a spacewalk. Despite the fact that Leonov spent only 12 minutes in vacuum, it was a real feat. These few minutes the cosmonaut calls absolute silence, he spoke about this in his first interviews. Today year of human spacewalk every student knows. In 1965, on March 12, the Voskhod-2 spacecraft launched on board with Alexei Leonov and the commander of the apparatus Pavel Belyaev, since then this date has been important for the history of Russia. Leonov spacewalk did when he was 31 years old.

How it was

The first ever human walk in space outside the side of the ship caused a real delight all over the world. Moreover, this happened precisely when the USSR and America fiercely competed for the title of the first in the field of mastering the space of weightlessness. Spacewalk was regarded at that time as a propaganda success for the Soviet Union and a serious blow to American national pride.

Leonov's spacewalk- this is a real breakthrough in the field of exploration of the Universe. In fact, there were many dangerous moments during the flight that the astronaut experienced. Almost immediately, his suit inflated as a result of strong pressure. To solve the problem, the pilot had to break the instructions and reduce the pressure inside. That is why he entered the ship not with his feet forward, but with his head. Cosmonaut Leonov spacewalk, despite all the problems, performed successfully and landed successfully.

Despite the technical inspection of the vessel and its thorough preparation for the flight, problems still arose. A sharp temperature drop led to the fact that a crevice formed in the hatch lining. What would entail the depressurization of the ship and the death of the astronauts. After the first spacewalk year Over the years, research has become more and more active.

In the days of the Soviet Union, they kept silent about the emergency situations that occurred, the truth was made public relatively recently, including human spacewalk was imperfect. But today it is already possible to tell the whole truth. In particular, that Alexei Leonov spacewalk almost committed without a safety cable, and if not for the commander of the ship, who noticed this in time, Belyaev's body to this day would be in the orbit of the planet.

What did Leonov feel?

Astronaut's spacewalk This is a real feat and a breakthrough in science. Alexey Leonov will forever remain the first person in the history of mankind who saw the planet Earth from a height of 500 km. At the same time, he did not feel movement at all, although he flew at a speed several times higher than the speed of a jet aircraft. It is impossible on Earth to feel the gigantic environment surrounding a person, this is available only from space. When Leonov saw the Irtysh, he received a command to return to the abortion of the ship, but he could not do it right away because of the swollen spacesuit. Fortunately, Alexei Leonov's spacewalk ended successfully.

Alexei Leonov is the first cosmonaut to go into outer space.

Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov

Out in outer space

March 1965 is forever imprinted not only in the history of Russian cosmonautics. The 18th day of this month was hardly a less glorious milestone for the entire earthly civilization on the path to conquering space than the Gagarin flight:

Alexei Leonov, USSR cosmonaut number 11, left the airlock of the spacecraft, made a spacewalk. For the successful completion of his mission, Leonov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. It is difficult to overestimate the achievements of those years in the field of peaceful space exploration, because that was the time of the first.

Biography of cosmonaut Alexei Leonov

On the penultimate day of May 1934, the Leonov family, who then chose a small Siberian settlement as their place of permanent residence, was replenished with another child, who was named Alexei. The head of the family, Arkhip Leonov, moved to Siberia from Ukraine after the end of the Civil War, following his father, who was sent into exile by the tsarist government back in 1905.

The wave of mass repressions and political persecution that swept across the country in 1937-1938 also affected the Leonov family: the entire family was declared “enemies of the people” and deprived of their homes. A temporary shelter was found in the regional center - the city of Kemerovo. After the rehabilitation of 1939, the Leonovs moved to Kaliningrad, where the father of the family was offered a job in his profile (electrician).

Alexei Leonov, being an extremely inquisitive child, had diverse hobbies: fencing, athletics, technical sciences, plumbing, painting. In almost all sports areas, he has achieved serious success, confirmed by the relevant categories. In 1953, having received a secondary general education, Alexey decided to go to the Kremenchug aviation school. Then the young pilot continued his studies at the Military Aviation School in the city of Chuguev, Kharkov region.

On March 18, 1965, having been selected for the team of the first cosmonauts, Alexei Leonov took a direct part in the flight beyond the earth's atmosphere, which lasted a little over 2 hours. Cosmonaut Pavel Belyaev became his partner. During this event, Leonov filmed a video while outside the Voskhod-2 spacecraft for a little more than 12 minutes.

After this significant event, cosmonaut A. Leonov participated in the preparation of programs for the exploration of the moon, which were subsequently curtailed due to the loss of the USSR championship in the "lunar race" with the United States.

Aleksey Arkhipovich always strived to have the most up-to-date knowledge in the technical field: in parallel with his main job, he received additional education at the N. E. Zhukovsky Air Force Academy.

In 1971, Leonov was given command of the crew of the Soyuz-11 spacecraft. In 1975, he flew into Earth orbit together with cosmonaut Valery Kubasov on the Soyuz-19 spacecraft. At the same time, the first docking with an American spacecraft was made.

From 1976 to 1991, Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov worked at the Cosmonaut Training Center. In 1992, he retired with the rank of Major General of Aviation. Since then, he has been living in Moscow, conducting scientific activities related to ensuring the safety of space flights. The choice of this vector of research may be due to the problems that Alexei Leonov had to face during the flight on the Voskhod-2 spacecraft

Voskhod-2

The feat of Yuri Gagarin was the first step on the difficult path of exploration of near-Earth space. The astronaut's spacewalk was the next mission, in the technical support of which advanced Soviet enterprises were involved. The Berkut space suit was developed at the Zvezda Research and Production Enterprise taking into account the specifics of the planned event: its purpose was not only to ensure safety during spacewalks, but to save the astronaut in the event of a depressurization of the spacecraft. Having passed the required preparatory procedures, the crew of two (Pavel Belyaev and Alexei Leonov) went into orbit on March 18, 1965 at 10:00 Moscow time. Everything was running normally. Having made two orbits around the planet, the cosmonauts decided that Leonov would leave the spacecraft. At 11:34 he, having passed the lock chamber, found himself in an airless space, where he stayed for 12 minutes. When we returned, the problems began.

Difficult return

For safety reasons, the astronaut kept in touch with the spacecraft via a 5-meter connecting cord. According to Leonov, staying in the vacuum of space was overshadowed by severe physical discomfort (tachycardia, shortness of breath, increased sweating, fever). Trying to return to the airlock, Aleksey ran into a problem that could not even be imagined during the preparation of the flight: the spacesuit was swollen and did not allow the astronaut to get on the ship. The entrance to the airlock became possible only after the pressure was released from the suit. Not having time to take a breath after such a test, the astronauts received a signal about the depressurization of the ship: after the regular disconnection of the airlock, the hatch was damaged and did not fit snugly into the grooves. By turning on the oxygen supply from spare tanks, Leonov managed to put an end to this problem. But a new one was already looming on the horizon: the automatic landing control system failed, and P. Belyaev had to take control. Because of this, it was not possible to proceed to the landing site on Earth at the given coordinates: we had to land in the taiga far from settlements. The astronauts were found only a day later with the help of a helicopter. On March 21, they were already at the spaceport.

The time of the first is the time of people who longed to conquer the hostile space, glorify their country, and most importantly, open new horizons for all mankind. And they succeeded! After a safe return, cosmonaut Leonov made a report to the state commission, which he concluded with the words: "You can live and work in outer space!"

Historical video: the first minutes spent by man in outer space.

Interview with Alexei Leonov - the first man to go into outer space