The first man to walk into outer space. Alexey Leonov: the first in outer space
The beginning of the rapid study of the Universe is considered to be April 12, 1961, when a man first went into space and Yuri Gagarin, a citizen of the USSR, became him. Year after year, new discoveries were made after his flight.
Open space
It is a risky business to be outside the spacecraft in one spacesuit. Exactly 52 years ago, the pilot Soviet Union Alexey Leonov made a spacewalk. Despite the fact that Leonov spent only 12 minutes in an airless space, it was a real feat. The cosmonaut calls these few minutes absolute silence, he spoke about this in his first interviews. Today year of manned spacewalk every student knows. In 1965, on March 12, the Voskhod-2 ship was launched on board with Alexei Leonov and the commander of the spacecraft Pavel Belyaev, since then this date has been important for the history of Russia. Leonov spacewalk committed when he was 31 years old.
How it was
The first ever walk of a man in space outside the ship has 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 the development of the space of weightlessness. Spacewalk was regarded at that time as a propaganda success of the Soviet Union and a serious blow to the national pride of Americans.
Leonov's spacewalk - this is a real breakthrough in the field of the development of the Universe. In fact, there were many dangerous moments during the flight that the astronaut experienced. Almost immediately, his suit was blown up by the intense pressure. To solve the problem, the pilot had to violate the instructions and reduce the pressure inside. That is why he entered the ship not feet first, but head. Cosmonaut Leonov spacewalkin spite of all the problems, he 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 skin. That would entail depressurization of the spacecraft and the death of astronauts. After the first spacewalk year over the year, research has been carried out more and more actively.
During the times of the Soviet Union, the emergency situations that occurred were kept silent, the truth was made public relatively recently, including spacewalkwas imperfect. But today the whole truth can be told. In particular, that Alexey Leonov spacewalk I almost did it without a safety rope, and if the commander of the ship, who noticed this in time, the body of Belyaev to this day, was in orbit of the planet.
What Leonov felt
Space walk of an astronaut - 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 the movement at all, although he flew at a speed several times higher than the speed of a jet plane. It is impossible on Earth to feel the gigantic environment, surrounding man, this is available exclusively from space. When Leonov saw the Irtysh, he received the command to return to the abortion of the ship, but he was not able to do so immediately due to the bloated spacesuit. Fortunately, alexei Leonov's spacewalkended successfully.
In March 1965, the Voskhod-2 spacecraft flew. The crew, consisting of cosmonauts P.I.Belyaev and A.A.Leonov, faced a difficult, but very important task - to carry out the first manned spacewalk in history.
The direct implementation of the experiment fell to the lot and on March 18 he successfully coped with it. The astronaut went into open space, moved 5 meters away from the spacecraft and spent a total of 12 minutes and 9 seconds outside the spacecraft.
Voskhod's flight did not go without emergency situations and curious cases. It is difficult to describe how much mental and physical strength had to be spent by people who were preparing this grandiose experiment - a man's spacewalk. Interesting Facts and little-known details of the flight and its preparation became the basis of this article.
Idea
The idea that a man's spacewalk is possible came to Korolyov back in 1963. The designer suggested that in the near future such an experience would be not only desirable, but absolutely necessary. He was right. In the following decades, astronautics developed rapidly. For example, maintaining the normal operation of the ISS would have generally been impossible without external installation and repair work, which once again proves how necessary the first manned spacewalk was. The year 1964 marked the beginning of the official preparation for this experiment.
But then, in 1964, in order to carry out such a daring project, it was necessary to seriously think over the design of the ship. As a result, the well-proven Voskhod-1 was taken as a basis. One of its windows was replaced with an exit airlock, and the crew was reduced from three to two. The airlock itself was inflatable and located outside the ship. After the completion of the experiment, before landing, she had to separate herself from the hull. This is how the Voskhod-2 spacecraft appeared.
There was another, more serious problem. Such a dangerous experiment had to first be worked out on animals. However, this was abandoned, considering that the development of a special spacesuit for an animal was too troublesome and costly. In addition, he would not give an answer to the most important question: how will a person behave in outer space? It was decided to conduct experiments directly on humans.
Today, astronauts are capable of leaving the spacecraft for several hours and performing very complex manipulations in outer space. But in the 60s, it seemed like complete fantasy or even suicide.
Crew
Initially, the group of cosmonauts preparing for the flight consisted of Leonov, Gorbatko and Khrunov. Belyaev was on the verge of being expelled from the cosmonaut corps for health reasons, and only at Gagarin's insistence was he included in the flight preparation group.
As a result, two crews were formed: the main one - Belyaev, Leonov - and the backup one - Gorbatko, Khrunov. The crews of this expedition had special requirements. The team had to work as a whole, and the astronauts had to be compatible with each other from the point of view of psychology.
The test results showed that Belyaev has great restraint and composure, is able not to lose his head in any situation, and Leonov, on the contrary, is impetuous, impulsive, but at the same time unusually brave and courageous. These two people, so different in character, could work perfectly in pairs, which was a necessary condition in order to carry out the first manned spacewalk.
Workouts
For the first three months, the cosmonauts studied the design and devices of the new spacecraft, followed by lengthy training in zero gravity. This required a maneuverable aircraft and a very experienced pilot who could confidently perform an hourly flight the aircraft was able to simulate weightlessness for a total of about 2 minutes. It was during this time that the cosmonauts had to have time to work out the entire planned program.
Initially, they flew in MIG sparks, but the astronauts tied with belts were deprived of the opportunity to move. It was decided to take a more spacious Tu-104LL. Inside the plane, a mock-up of a part of a spacecraft with an airlock was installed, this impromptu simulator was used for basic training.
Uncomfortable spacesuits
Today, in the museum of cosmonautics, you can see the very same spacesuit in which Leonov carried out a manned spacewalk. A photo of a smiling astronaut in a helmet with the inscription "USSR" flew around all the newspapers in the world, but no one could imagine how much effort this smile cost.
Specially for "Voskhod-2" special spacesuits were developed, which bore the formidable name "Berkut". They had an additional sealed shell, and a knapsack was placed behind the astronaut's back. For better light reflection, even the color of the spacesuits was changed: instead of the traditional orange, they used white. The total weight of the Berkut was about 100 kg.
All trainings took place in spacesuits, the support system of which left much to be desired. The air supply was extremely weak, which means that at the slightest movement the astronaut immediately became covered with perspiration from stress.
In addition, the suits were very uncomfortable. They were so dense that in order to clench a hand into a fist, an effort of almost 25 kilograms was required. To be able to do any movement in such clothes, he had to be constantly trained. The work went to wear and tear, but the astronauts stubbornly walked towards the cherished goal - to make it possible for man to go into outer space. Leonov, by the way, was considered the strongest and most enduring in the group, which largely predetermined his main role in the experiment.
Demonstration performance
In the midst of training, a great friend of the USSR, Charles de Gaulle, flew to Moscow, and Khrushchev decided to boast to him of the successes of Soviet cosmonautics. He decided to show the Frenchman how cosmonauts work out a manned spacewalk. It immediately became clear that the crew that would participate in this "performance" would be sent on a real flight. By order of Gagarin, at this crucial moment Khrunov was replaced by Belyaev. According to Khrunov's recollections, he did not understand the motives for this replacement and for a long time retained a grudge against Gagarin for this inexplicable act.
Later, Gagarin explained his position to Khrunov, he believed that it was necessary to give Belyaev the last chance to fly into space. Young Khrunov could have done this several times later, besides Belyaev was better suited to Leonov from a psychological point of view.
Trouble before the start
A big trouble happened the day before the start. Due to the negligence of a security soldier, an inflatable airlock that was hung out of the ship to check the tightness suddenly fell and broke. There was no spare, and therefore it was decided to use the very one on which the cosmonauts trained for a long time. This incident could have turned out to be fatal, but, fortunately, everything worked out, the repeatedly used airlock survived, and the first manned spacewalk was successful.
Spacewalk
As for human behavior in outer space, ill-wishers argued that an astronaut who stepped outside the spacecraft would immediately weld on to it, would be deprived of the ability to move, or even completely It is very difficult to imagine what else a person's exit into outer space could turn out to be. 1965 could easily have been the year of a grandiose failure However, only practice could confirm or refute these pessimistic theories.
In addition, no rescue systems had yet been developed at that time. The only thing that was done for the astronauts was permission, in which case, just open the hatch and put your hand out of it.
When the spacecraft entered the intended orbit, Leonov began to prepare for the exit. Everything went according to plan, when the X-hour came, the astronaut gently pushed off and swam out of the airlock into open space.
The skeptics' worst predictions did not come true, and the cosmonaut felt quite well. He completed all the prescribed program, and it was time to return to the ship. There were some problems with this. The spacesuit bloated in zero gravity did not allow Leonov to enter the airlock. Then, without consulting anyone, he independently lowered the pressure in the spacesuit and rushed into the airlock head first, and not vice versa, as planned. The first manned spacewalk was completed, and Alexei Leonov forever inscribed his name in the history of astronautics.
Emergency on the descent
Voskhod-2 had many flaws, and after the successful completion of the flight program, an emergency occurred. When the exit airlock was fired, the solar-stellar orientation sensors were stuck. When the ship made its 16th orbit around the Earth, an order was received from the MCC to descend. But the ship continued to fly as if nothing had happened. When he went to the 17th orbit, it became clear that the automatic orientation system did not work, and the crew had to switch to manual control. The flight, the main task of which was manned spacewalk, could end in disaster.
At the cost of incredible efforts, Belyaev and Leonov regained control of the ship, but they were still almost a minute late with turning off the engines. As a result, the planned landing site was left far behind and the launch vehicle landed in the dense Permian forests.
Rescue operation
The cosmonauts remained in the winter forest for two long days. True, one helicopter still tried to throw off their warm clothes, but missed, and the bundle was lost in the snowdrifts.
The helicopter could not land in deep snow among the trees, and the cosmonauts did not have the necessary equipment either to cut down trees or to fill the snow with water and make an impromptu ice landing pad. Ultimately, the rescue team reached the frozen cosmonauts on foot and were able to take them out of the thicket.
Despite all the difficulties of preparation and unpleasant incidents during the flight, Belyaev and Leonov coped with their main task - they carried out a manned spacewalk. The date of this event became one of the most significant milestones in the history of Soviet cosmonautics.
The 60s of the 20th century are the height of the Cold War of two superpowers: the USA and the Soviet Union. The struggle is being waged in the exploration of outer space. The USSR makes the first step; on April 12, 1961, it makes its first flight. The next step is the first man in outer space, who will take this height? Countries gave an answer to this question only after 4 years.
The first man in outer space
The political and scientific battle was serious: Soviet cosmonauts and American astronauts made regular flights into space, but all the work was carried out inside the ship. And, finally, the historic day came when the USSR again pulled ahead. On March 18, 1965, a Soviet cosmonaut went into outer space.
The flight took place on spaceship "Voskhod-2". The commander was Leonov's partner -. Having reached orbit, the cosmonauts began to prepare. Alexei Leonov put on a specially designed Berkut spacesuit, and Pavel Belyaev set about installing an airlock through which the exit was coming. The chamber was cylindrical in shape and consisted of three compartments isolated from each other with 12 inflatable sections in each. When entering outer space, the airlock was depressurized.
Spaceship "Voskhod-2" As soon as the cosmonaut found himself in a vacuum inside the compartments, the countdown of his stay outside the ship began. The end of the spacewalk is considered to be the time when the airlock hatch was closed. Thus, the first spacewalk of Alexei Leonov lasted 23 minutes 41 seconds. Completely outside the ship and the camera, he spent 12 minutes 9 seconds. During this time, Leonov 5 times moved away from the ship and approached it. Attached to Voskhod-2, it was a special halyard with a length of 5.35 m.
But not everything was so cloudless. The Berkut spacesuit was of a ventilation type with a total oxygen supply of 1666 liters. The air consumption per minute was 30-35 liters, depending on the cosmonaut's respiration rate, i.e. the oxygen supply would be sufficient for a maximum of 45 minutes. When cosmonaut Leonov went out into the open, the spacesuit swelled due to the pressure difference. Returning to the ship, he realized that he could not pass through the lock, the inner diameter of which is only 1 meter.
At first, Alexei Leonov wanted to report what had happened to the headquarters on Earth, but decided not to waste precious time on this, because such situations had not arisen before, simply due to the fact that he was the first cosmonaut to enter open space. Leonov made a decision that saved his life - he began to bleed oxygen from the suit, thereby blowing it off. Gradually, the astronaut returned to the ship.
It was a victory! But, as always, trouble does not come alone. At first, Voskhod-2's attitude control system failed, and Belyaev and Leonov had to control the ship in manual mode. Then, having entered the Earth's atmosphere, the orbital module did not separate from the lander. And until the connecting cable burned out, the astronauts rotated, experiencing an overload of up to 10G.
Due to all the technical difficulties, the landing took place far from the intended location. The team landed in a deep snow-covered taiga, 200 km north of Perm. At night, the temperature reached -30 degrees. The rescuers reached the heroes only 2 days later.
It was a historic moment not only for the USSR, but for the whole world. The main pages of all newspapers were full of photos and stories about the achievements of the Soviet cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Pavel Belyaev. Both were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In 2017, Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov turned 83 years old. He lives in Moscow. All his life, until his retirement, he devoted to astronautics, and also became an artist: together with the science fiction writer A. Sokolov, he created a series of postage stamps on the theme "The History of Space". Unfortunately, Pavel Belyaev died in 1970 from an illness. He was only 44 years old.
First American in outer space
The Americans were 2.5 months behind the USSR. The first spacewalk of a US astronaut took place on June 3, 1965. It was NASA astronaut, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Edward White. The flight was performed on the Gemini 4 spacecraft. A ship of this type did not have an airlock, therefore, to enter the open space, it was necessary to depressurize the entire ship.
The Americans considered the start of spacewalk when the astronaut's head protruded outside the spacecraft, even if the rest of the body was still inside. The end of the spacewalk was the moment when the astronaut was completely inside Gemini 4. Thus, Edward White spent 36 minutes in outer space. Two years after this event, at the age of 36, the astronaut died in a fire while testing the Apollo 1 spacecraft and was posthumously awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal.
Since then, astronauts regularly make exits to open space to do work outside the spacecraft. Of course, such activities are risky. First of all, the danger is space debris, a collision with which can cost the astronaut the life or serious damage to the spacesuit. Dangerous and unintentional removal from the ship. To keep space workers safe, scientists are working to create robots that can perform actions outside the spacecraft without human intervention.
In cosmonautics, our country has always occupied a leading position: the first flight into space, the first exit into open space, the launch of the first artificial satellite Earth and the first artificial satellite of the Sun, even the launch of the first animal into space - the dog Laika. All this is our history and our pride!
In 2017, in memory of the feat of Alexei Leonov and Pavel Belyaev, a feature film based on real events was shot - "The Time of the First". The main roles were played by and. In the film you can see not only technical facts the flight itself and its preparation, but also the personal experiences of the heroes and their families. And once again admire the heroism and courage of the great cosmonauts who made an invaluable contribution to space exploration.
On October 11, 2019, Alexey Leonov died. He was 85 years old. This text about him was published in March 2014.
“I was struck by the silence. Silence, extraordinary silence. And the ability to hear your own breathing and heartbeat. I heard my heart beating, I heard my breathing ", - Alexey Leonov
On March 18, 1965 at 10:00 Moscow time the Vostok spacecraft was launched from Baikonur. On board were two Soviet cosmonauts: commander Pavel Ivanovich Belyaev and pilot Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov. An hour and a half later, one of them stepped into the abyss, got rid of the strong shell of the ship and went into open space. It was connected with the planet Earth only by a rope 5.5 meters long. No one has ever flown so far from their homeland.
Training
Almost four years have passed since the flight of Yuri Gagarin, the whole world was carried away by the space race of two superpowers - the USSR and the USA. They have already sent several manned ships; in 1964, for the first time on the Soviet "Voskhod" of a new type, three people went into space at once, now the next fundamental step was to go - an exit into outer space.
Both powers, intensely engaged in the space program, simultaneously came up with obvious problems that needed to be solved. Sooner or later, during the planned long flights, preventive and repair work outside the spacecraft will be required, except for the cosmonauts themselves, there will be no one to perform them, therefore, it was necessary to develop a safe and effective system for their implementation. In the USSR, Korolev dealt with this problem, and a young cosmonaut from the first detachment, Alexei Leonov, became the chief executive specialist. According to the program, an improved version of the latest spacecraft "Voskhod", an airlock system and a special protective suit. By February 1965, everything was ready, with the last shot remaining.
Ship
Voskhod-2 became an improved version of the first spacecraft, on which, in 1964, three cosmonauts simultaneously flew for the first time: Vladimir Komarov, Konstantin Feoktistov and Boris Yegorov. The cockpit was so cramped that they had to fly without spacesuits, and if the ship was depressurized, they were threatened with inevitable death. The weight of Vostok-2 was almost 6 tons, its diameter was 2.5 meters, and its height was almost 4.5 meters. The new spacecraft was adapted for the flight of two people and equipped with a unique inflatable airlock for spacewalk "Volga" - there the chamber was inflated and was ready to receive the cosmonaut. Its outer diameter is 1.2 meters, the inner diameter is only 1 meter, and its length is 2.5 meters. In preparation for landing, the camera shot back and the ship landed without it.
It should be noted that the flight of Voskhod-2 with an airlock and a crew on board was risky, since it was not possible to check the operation of all systems in advance. On February 22, 1965, less than a month before the flight of Belyaev and Leonov, the unmanned spacecraft Kosmos-57 (a copy of Vostok-2) was blown up during a test flight due to an erroneous command to self-destruct. Despite this, Korolev (chief designer of the entire program) and Keldysh (President of the USSR Academy of Sciences), after consulting with the cosmonauts, decided not to cancel the planned flight.
Armor
The first spacesuit for spacewalk was called "Berkut" (by the way, all Soviet and Russian spacesuits bear the names of birds of prey: "Orlan", "Hawk", "Falcon", "Krechet"), together with a knapsack, it weighed 40 kilograms, which, of course, does not matter in zero gravity conditions, but gives an idea of \u200b\u200bthe seriousness of the design. All systems were as simple as possible, but effective. For example, the designers decided to do without a regeneration unit to save space, and exhaled carbon dioxide was released through a valve directly into outer space.
However, at that time, several were used in the spacesuit. the latest technologies that time: the screen-vacuum insulation of several layers of metallized fabric protected the astronaut from temperature changes, and a light filter on the glass of the helmet saved his eyes from bright sunlight.
"Berkut" was used only once during the flight of "Voskhod-2" by the crew of Belyaev and Leonov and is currently the only universal spacesuit, that is, it was intended both to rescue pilots when the ship was depressurized and for spacewalks.
Threats
You have all, of course, watched the 7 Oscar-winning movie "Gravity", and therefore should have a good understanding of all the dangers that threaten an astronaut in outer space. This is the danger of losing contact with the ship, the danger of colliding with space debris and, finally, the danger of running out of oxygen reserves before returning to the ship. In addition, there is a danger of overheating or hypothermia, as well as radiation damage.
Communication
Leonov was tied to the ship with a strong halyard, five and a half meters long. During the flight, he repeatedly stretched to his full length and again pulled himself up to the ship, recording all his actions on a movie camera. In the 60s, there were still no rocket packs (a device for moving and maneuvering an astronaut) that allowed one to completely freely separate from the ship and return to it, so a thin strong rope on two metal carbines is literally everything that connected Leonov with life and the opportunity to return home.
Wreckage
the likelihood of colliding with any space debris orbiting the Earth in 1965 was still very small. Before the flight of "Voskhod-2", only 11 manned spacecraft and several satellites visited space, while in rather low orbits with a relatively high density of atmospheric gases, respectively, most of the smallest particles of paint, debris and other debris remaining after these ships, soon burned out, without having time to harm anyone. Before formulating kessler syndrome it was still far away, and the Soviet space program did not take this danger seriously.
Oxygen
The Berkut spacesuit, designed specifically for spacewalk and having full autonomy, had a supply of only 1,666 liters of oxygen, and more than 30 liters per minute had to be spent to maintain the required gas pressure and vital functions of the cosmonaut. Thus, the maximum time spent outside the ship was only about 45 minutes, and that was all about everything: entering the lock, going into outer space, staying in free flight, returning to the lock and waiting for its closing time. The total time of Leonov's exit was 23 minutes 41 seconds (of which 12 minutes 9 seconds outside the ship). No margin for error correction or rescue was provided.
Temperature regime and radiation
Leonov almost miraculously managed to complete his exit before the ship fell into the shadow of the Earth, where low temperatures could complicate all his actions and lead to death. In the pitch darkness, he could not cope with the halyard and the entrance to the airlock. Being on the sunny side for 12 minutes made him sweat. “There was no more patience, the sweat flowed down my face not like a hail, but a stream, but so pungent that my eyes burned,” recalls Leonov. As for radiation, then he was relatively lucky. At the apogee of its orbit, almost 500 kilometers above the ground, Voskhod-2 touched only the lower edge of the radiation hazardous zone, where radiation can be up to 500 roentgens / hour (a lethal dose in a few minutes), a short-term stay in it and a good combination of circumstances did not led to dire consequences. Upon landing, Leonov recorded a dose of 80 milligrams, which is significantly higher than the norm, but does not lead to health damage.
Flight
On the very first loop of the flight, the airlock was inflated. Both crew members took their places and donned spacesuits. On the second loop, Leonov climbed into the airlock, and the commander closed the hatch tightly behind him. At 11:28, the air was bleed off the Volga - time had passed, now Leonov was completely autonomous. At 11:32 am, the outer hatch was opened from the control panel, two minutes later at 11:34 am Leonov left the airlock and went into open space.
At the time of the exit, the cosmonaut's pulse was 164 beats per minute. Leonov moved away from the ship by a meter, and then returned again. The body unfolded freely in space. Through the glass of his helmet, he looked at the Black Sea passing directly below him, at the ships sailing on its dark blue surface.
He repeated his maneuver of withdrawal and approach to the ship several times, spinning freely and spreading his arms, all the while talking on the radio with the ship's commander and ground services. Above the Volga, Belyaev connected a telephone in Leonov's spacesuit to the broadcasts of the Moscow radio, on which Levitan read a TASS message about a man's spacewalk. At this time, the whole world, with the help of TV broadcasts from the cameras of the ship, could see Leonov waving his hand to all mankind directly from outer space.
Leonov's record flight lasted 12 minutes and 9 seconds.
Unseen circumstances
In preparation for the flight on the ground, 3000 different emergency situations and their solutions were worked out. But Leonov said that according to the law, the 3001st will happen in space, and it will also need to be solved. And so it happened.
In open space, the soft spacesuit swelled due to excess pressure (inside 0.5 atm, outside - zero). “My hands jumped out of my gloves, and my feet out of my boots,” Leonov recalls. The astronaut found himself inside a large inflated balloon. The tactile sensations and the sense of support were gone. And he also had to collect the halyard in the bay so as not to get entangled in it, take the movie camera, which he held in his hands, and enter the narrow hatch of the inflatable airlock. The decision had to be made very quickly, and Leonov succeeded.
“I silently, without reporting back to Earth (this was a very big violation of mine), I make a decision and release the pressure from the suit almost 2 times, by 0.27 instead of 0.5. And my hands immediately fell into place, I was able to work with gloves. "
But this gave rise to dire consequences - due to the drop in the partial pressure of oxygen, it got into the nitrogen boiling zone ( decompression sickness known among divers). But it was necessary to hurry. The commander of the ship, Belyaev, seeing that the shadow was inexorably approaching, and in complete darkness and with extreme minus, nothing could help Leonov, hurried his pilot.
Leonov made several attempts to enter the airlock, but all of them were unsuccessful, the spacesuit did not obey and did not allow to step forward with his feet, as it should be according to the instructions. Each failure brought near a terrible death: oxygen was running out. From excitement and hard work, Leonov's pulse quickened, he began to breathe more often and deeper.
Then Leonov, in violation of all instructions, made a last desperate attempt - with the help of the valve, he released the pressure in the suit to the maximum minimum, pushed the movie camera into the airlock and, turning his head forward, pulled himself in on his hands. It was possible to do this only thanks to excellent physical fitness - the exhausted body gave the last energy to this effort. Inside the cell, Leonov turned around with great difficulty, closed the hatch and finally gave the command to equalize the pressure. At 11:52, air began to flow into the airlock - this was the end of Alexei Leonov's spacewalk.
Homecoming
Leonov's struggle for life was over; the hatch behind him slammed shut, separating the small, light, cozy little world of the Voskhod-2 cabin from the dark endless cold of outer space. But then another problem arose. The partial pressure of oxygen in the cockpit began to rise, it had already reached 460 mm and continued to grow - and this is at a rate of 160 mm. The slightest spark in the electrical circuits of the devices could lead to an explosion. Later it turned out that due to the fact that Voskhod-2 was stabilized relative to the Sun for a long time, it heated up unevenly (on the one hand + 150 ° C, and on the other -140 ° C), which led to a slight deformation of the hull. The hatch closure sensors worked, but a small gap remained, from which air escaped. The automation system regularly provided the life support of the astronauts by supplying oxygen to the cabin. The crew was unable to deal with this on their own, and the cosmonauts could only watch the instrument readings in horror. When the total pressure reached 920 mm, the hatch slammed shut under his pressure, and the threat passed - soon the atmosphere inside the cabin returned to normal.
But the troubles of the astronauts did not end there either. In the normal mode, the ship was supposed to start the landing program after the 17th orbit, but the braking propulsion system did not work in automatic mode, and the ship continued to rush at a breakneck speed in orbit. The ship had to be landed in manual mode, Belyakov orientated it to the correct position and sent it to a deserted area in the taiga near Solikamsk. Most of all, then the commander was afraid of getting into a densely populated area and touching power lines or houses. There was also a risk of flying into the then unfriendly territory of China, but all this was avoided. After turning on the brake motors and braking in the atmosphere, agonizing seconds of waiting dragged on. But everything worked out: the parachute system worked in normal mode, and Voskhod-2 landed 30 kilometers south-west of the city of Berezniki in the Perm region. The commander brilliantly coped with the task, deviating from the design point by only 80 km, taking into account the fact that the ship flew at a speed of about 30,000 km / h.
The helicopter very quickly found red parachutes hanging on the treetops, but there was no way to find a landing site and pull out the crew that had landed successfully. For two days Belyaev and Leonov sat in the snowy taiga, waiting for help to arrive. Without getting out of their spacesuits, they wrapped themselves in a heat-insulating casing, wrapped themselves in parachute lines, made a fire, but on the first night they could not get warm. In the morning, food and warm clothes were thrown off them (the pilots took off their jackets from their shoulders), a group with a doctor was lowered on the ropes, which, having reached the landed cosmonauts, was able to provide them with better conditions. All this time, a landing site for an evacuation helicopter was being cut down nearby, where the cosmonauts could get on skis. Already on March 21, Belyaev and Leonov were in Perm, from where they reported on the successful completion of the flight personally to the General Secretary of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev, and on March 23 the heroes were met by Moscow.
***
P. Belyaev and A. Leonov
On October 20, 1965, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) set a record for a man in outer space outside of a ship - 12 minutes and 9 seconds. Alexey Leonov received the highest FAI award - gold medal "Cosmos" for the first entry into open space in the history of mankind. The crew commander Pavel Belyaev also received a medal and a diploma.
Leonov became the fifteenth person in space, and the first person to take the next fundamental step after Gagarin. To be alone with the abyss, the most hostile space for a person, to look at the stars only through the thin glass of a helmet, to hear the beat of your heart in absolute silence and to return back is a real feat. The feat, behind which stood thousands of scientists, engineers, workers and millions of ordinary people, but was accomplished by one person - Alexei Leonov.
Alexei Leonov forever entered the history of the development of near-earth space - soviet cosmonaut became the first to visit open space. Initially it was planned that Leonov would be sent into orbit as part of the Vostok-11 mission, but the fateful launch was postponed for 18 months, and as a result, Alexey flew on March 18, 1965, on the Voskhod-2 spacecraft together with his partner Pavel Belyaev ...
Voskhod-2
When the cosmonauts reached orbit, preparations began: Leonov put on a specially designed spacesuit with a supply of oxygen for 45 minutes, and Belyaev set about installing a flexible airlock through which Alexei was supposed to go into space.
After all the necessary precautions were taken, Leonov left the ship and spent a total of 12 minutes and 9 seconds outside of it. When it was time to return, an unexpected problem arose - the cosmonaut's spacesuit swelled strongly in vacuum and did not fit into the airlock.
At first, Leonov wanted to report an emergency situation to Earth, but realized that they would not help him with advice, because he was the only person who had ever encountered something similar. The first prisoner of outer space in history quickly found a way out of the situation: to get inside the ship, it was necessary to reduce the size of the spacesuit, and this could be done only by bleeding off excess oxygen.
Leonov decided to take this step, realizing that every additional minute spent in thought could be his last. He began to release oxygen from the suit, squeezing through the airlock centimeter by centimeter. The cosmonaut prefers not to tell what he had to endure in those few minutes, but the impressions were certainly not pleasant.
When the episode with the stuck Leonov was safely resolved, it turned out that the orientation system had failed - the astronauts had to land by manually controlling the spacecraft, and after the capsule with Belyaev and Leonov entered the Earth's atmosphere, it began to rotate rapidly due to the fact that the orbital module did not separate from the landing, as the calculations suggested.
On this "carousel" the cosmonauts experienced overloads of up to 10G, but when the cable, which prevented the landing and orbital modules from disconnecting, burned out, the capsule was stabilized. Because of all these troubles, the landing did not take place at all where it was calculated - the cosmonauts found themselves in a deep forest about 180 km north of Perm.
Belyaev and Leonov spent two nights in the taiga, the temperature sometimes dropped to -30 ° C, and the lander became unusable, so the cosmonauts could not use it to keep warm. When they were discovered, the rescuers first lit a huge fire to warm up the heroes, and later the whole company skied for another 9 km to get to the helicopter.
The feat of Pavel Belyaev and Alexei Leonov is a convincing example of what strong-willed and courageous people are capable of, even in outer space or at overloads of 10G. For the successful implementation of the flight, its participants were awarded the high titles of Hero of the Soviet Union.
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