The first person to walk in space, just do not stay there

A fascinating story about the adventures of Alexei Leonov in open kosmose

flight Alexey Leonov forever entered the history of the development of near-Earth space - was the first Soviet cosmonaut who was in open space. It was originally planned that the sending of Leonov's orbit will take place in the framework of the mission "Vostok-11," but momentous launch was postponed for 18 months, and eventually Alex flew 18 March 1965 the year of the spaceship "Voskhod-2" with a partner Pavel Belyaev .



When the astronauts reached orbit, preparations began: Leonov donned a specially designed suit with a supply of oxygen for 45 minutes, and Belyaev engaged in installing flexible airlock through which Alex had to go into space.

Once all the necessary precautions have been taken, Leonov left the ship and spent a total of beyond 12 minutes and 9 seconds. When it came time to go, there was an unexpected problem - the astronaut's spacesuit in vacuum greatly inflated and does not get into the airlock.



Leonov first wanted to report an emergency at the Earth, however, I realized that the council will not help him, because he was the only person who's ever faced anything like that. The first ever prisoner of space pretty quickly found a way out: to get inside the ship was required to reduce the size of the suit, and it can be done, only to bleed the excess oxygen.





Leonov took this step, knowing that each extra minute spent in thought, could be his last. He began to produce oxygen from the suit, centimeter by centimeter squeezing the gateway. What he experienced in those few minutes, the astronaut chooses not to tell, but the experience certainly was not a pleasant one.





When the episode with stuck Leonov successfully resolved, it became clear that a failed system orientation - the astronauts had landed, driving machine manually, after the capsule with Belyaev and Leonov entered the Earth's atmosphere, its the beginning of a rapidly rotating due to the fact that the orbital module not separated from the landing, as suggested by calculations.

This "carousel" astronauts experienced overloads to 10G, however, when the cable does not allow landing and orbital module separated, burned, capsule was stabilized. Because of all these troubles landing place is not where expected - the astronauts found themselves in a deep forest about 180 kilometers north of Perm.



Belyaev and Leonov spent two nights in the forest, the temperature sometimes dropped to -30 ° C, and the lander came into disrepair, so the astronauts could not use it to warm up. When they were found, the first thing rescuers lit a huge bonfire to warm heroes, and later the entire company even ran 9 km on skis to get to the helicopter.

The feat Pavel Belyaev and Alexei Leonov - a compelling example of what can strong-willed and courageous people even in open space or overload in 10G. For the successful implementation of the flight participants awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

via factroom.ru