On March 18, 1965. At the Baikonur cosmodrome in southern Kazakhstan is preparing for the launch of space ship Voskhod 2. On Board were two cosmonauts is Pavel Belyaev and Alexei Leonov. The latter received honourable and extremely dangerous task He must become the first man to come out into open space and will remain there outside the ship.
At an altitude of 475 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, the ship goes into orbit. Belyaev and Leonov begin training. They have a foldable inflatable airlock when folded, made of linen matter, covered with rubber. She pouted outside the ship.
11:32:54 all ready. While under them floats North Africa, Leonov climbs out of an inflatable airlock. After a moment, he begins to float in outer space. In front of him the infinity of the Universe. The silence is broken only by the sound of his own breathing and heartbeats.
“I felt a little, some a little ant facing a giant the size of the Universe,” he said later about his feelings. “At the same time, I felt strong. High on the Ground I felt the power of the human intellect that brought me here.”
Then the void was filled with the voice of Pavel Belyaev. The words he said, were transferred to the Soviet Union: “Attention! The man went into outer space! At the moment it is freely floating in space”.
Joined Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev: “How are You feeling?” — he asked Leonov.
“Thank you! All excellent!” — Leonov said in response.
Triumph announced. And then complications began. The internal air pressure has led to the fact that the suit was blown up like a balloon, and it is more and more interfered with Leonov to move. Gradually my hands started to get out of the gloves and feet for shoes.
The situation immediately becomes critical. Loose gloves has led to the fact that Leonov could no longer squeeze into the airlock using the tether. He looked at the horizon, thought that he has about five minutes before he disappear in the shadow of the Earth. Then everything turns black. And until then, he needs to find a solution.
This year on the exit Leonov in open space were shown a feature film “first Time”, and this week the film was the European premiere at the Starmus festival in Trondheim.
Treated as a God
Alexei Leonov was 26 years old when in 1960 he was accepted into the first team of astronauts. The man who created the Soviet space program, named Sergei Korolev, it was he who determined the fate of the future astronauts. To them he was the Supreme being. Before meeting with him the young future astronauts in their conversations, talked almost exclusively about him.
“About the Queen saying that he is very holistic, but also very demanding people. Everyone around him walked on eggshells out of fear to do something wrong and make him angry. He was treated as God”.
So he Leonov describes the Queen in the book “Two sides of the moon”, which he co-wrote with American astronaut David Scott (David Scott). However, Leonov had a good relationship with his demanding Director.
“Leonov with Yuri Gagarin was the favorite of Sergei Korolev. He saw the potential of both and believed that they in their abilities are superior to others,” — said the expert on space issues Eric TANDBERG (Erik Tandberg), an employee of the Norwegian space centre.
“But the person who received the honors of being first in space was Gagarin, it was in 1961”.
Soon would come the time Leonov. Soviet leaders knew that NASA had planned to carry out the spacewalk, and the desire to defeat the Americans was great. In 1963, Korolyov was summoned by cosmonauts and reported the following: “a Sailor on the ship must be able to swim in the sea. A cosmonaut should be able to float in space.”
He looked into the eyes of Alexei Leonov and said, “You, Eaglet, put on that suit and start to practice walking in space.”
Heatstroke and caisson disease
Two years later, Leonov becomes the first man went into space. He stayed there for 12 minutes, and with every passing minute, there were growing indications that he will not return alive from this adventure.
As soon as the suit swelled more and more, there were two problems. First, the gloves dangled so much that he failed to involve himself in an inflatable airlock with tether. A bloated space suit is too big, so he can enter the narrow gateway.
From Leonov was radio contact with mission control, but he didn’t want to tell the Centre about a dangerous situation in which he was. He didn’t want to scare anyone and, furthermore, believed that he had no time to talk. Maybe he thought that the Americans intercepted radio traffic. Did not disclose to the Centre, he fingers gripped the valve inside the suit and bleed half of the air out of the suit.
“I was the only person who could solve this problem and I had to do it quickly,” — says Leonov in the book “Two sides of the moon”.
He started to pull yourself up a halyard to the gateway. Finally, he grabbed the airlock head-first and dragged himself inside.
“He incorrectly entered the cell. Had to enter it feet first, so you can close the airlock,” — said the expert on space issues Eric TANDBERG.
“Therefore, Leonov had to do a somersault inside a narrow chamber.”
While Leonov tried to roll over, he felt an itching of the skin — the first symptom of decompression sickness. When Leonov had let air out of the suit, he was exposed to great danger due to the strong pressure drop: it happens to divers if they rise upward from great depths.
Strenuous efforts led to a strong increase in temperature inside the Leonov’s spacesuit. The message on the medical parameters showed a rapid increase in his body temperature, what causes the threat of heat stroke.
“It was a huge exercise but, in the end, he was able to roll over to close the airlock,” — explains the expert on space issues.
“He is so sweaty that when I took off the suit, the sweat could pour out of a boot”.
Leonov returned safely to the ship, but two cosmonauts faced many challenges.
Race
Stay Leonov in space was another Soviet victory in the space competition with the United States. While the Soviet Union clearly in the lead. Starting gun of the space race began October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union launched the first artificial earth satellite, Sputnik 1.
The event was a great shock for the USA, which up to this point were convinced that they are technologically far ahead of the Soviets. It was especially scary for Americans because the run showed that the Soviets have missiles capable of reaching the United States.
Just a month after the launch of Sputnik, the Soviets increased his lead in the space race — the dog Laika became the first mammal to orbit around the Earth. The next goal was the launch of man into space. And in 1960, began training the first team of astronauts.
Biography Leonov was absolutely typical for the first generation of astronauts. He grew up in the coal region of Siberia in a large family. His mother was in classic Soviet style, was awarded for the birth of their children, the Order of maternal glory, first class. Leonov had become a good pilot and a skydiver, because of this he was invited to participate in cosmonaut training program.
From Leonov there was only one question he wanted to answer before becoming an astronaut: “I Have a girlfriend. Tell me honestly, will it block me to create a family?”
“If that’s a good girl, there will be no problems,” he said.
Wolves, frost and two feet of snow
Five years later, on March 18, 1965 the girl loved Leonov, became his wife. At home in the Soviet Union she received a message that her husband made a spacewalk. She had no idea that things could end badly.
First, the spacecraft began to spin once the lock chamber during descent was jettisoned from the ship. After this oxygen level became dangerous to grow. But most unpleasant was the fact that when the astronauts had to return to Earth, automatic control system out of order. They were forced to switch to manual control that no one tried to do.
“As a result, they landed in the wrong place, which was planned,” — says Eric TANDBERG.
They got to a deserted area in the Northern Russian taiga. There was a frost and a snow depth of two meters, and, in addition, it was mating time of the white Russian wolf. And nobody had no idea where there were these two cosmonauts.
To make matters worse, the exit hatch of the descent module was blocked by birch, and the astronauts had to work hard to get out.
As most of the astronauts Belyaev and Leonov are trained for survival in extreme conditions. They were stripped naked and squeezed her clothes completely wet from sweat. After that Leonov established a radio transmitter and began to send signals in Morse code.
Hours passed, but there was no answer. It started snowing, and the astronauts took refuge in the module. Then after seven hours, one West German station reported that he had attended Morse signals from the astronauts. The next day came the rescuers.
In place of planting forest was so thick that the helicopter could not land, and the rescuers reached on skis. The helicopter, meanwhile, dropped a big pot in which Belyaev with Leonov, melt snow, could heat water and rinse before returning to civilization.
Three days after landing two astronaut were on the slopes, nine miles to the helicopter, which headed for home. Each of them received the title Hero of the Soviet Union, the car and 15 thousand rubles (now about 2 thousand kroons).
But it took several decades before the public found out how dangerous was actually the first man in space. A government Commission made a short message after returning Belyayev and Leonov’s home: “Man in a specially made suit can live and work in outer space”.
