Almost 60 geezerhood ago , we took our first steps into the big , contraband nullity of space . Or more specifically , Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov had the honor of taking the very first quad - cutpurse . But this was a flush job — a means for the Soviet Union to shame the US and win the space race once and for all . Which they did!While near killing every single astronaut on board in the process .
This was years before the US ( or anyone for that matter ) knew what really went on onboard the Voskhod 2 mission to space . But now that the Cold War is long over and his remembering are , thankfully just that , Leonov spoke to the BBC about his historic , horrifying trial by ordeal . As it work out , while he did indeed complete a spacewalk , “ success ” might be a spot too strong of a intelligence .
Voskhod 2 spacecraft .
The chaos had all begin when Leonov ’s 10 minute were up and it was time to head back indoors . fit in to the BBC :
The lack of atmospheric pressure in space had slowly caused his spacesuit to balloon like a balloon . He recall , “ My suit was becoming deformed , my hands had drop away out of the glove , my feet come out of the boots . The suit of clothes felt loose around my physical structure … ”
… In five minutes he would be in the Earth ’s trace , and immerse into total darkness . Without tell ground control , the cosmonaut decided to bleed half of the melodic line out of his spacesuit through a valve in its lining . This risked famish his consistency of atomic number 8 , but if he could n’t get back inside the space capsule , he ’d be dead anyway .
Leonov have out a footling oxygen at a time to reduce the pressure . But as he did so , he started to feel the first hints of decompression malady .
Although he was unable to see due to profuse perspiration , Leonov did finally make it back on plug-in . The trouble did n’t end there , though ; once back inside , the cosmonauts realized that their air pressure and O level were climbing perilously high — and consequently , things were getting wildly inflammable .
During education , cosmonaut Valentin Bondarenko died after drop a objet d’art of inebriant - fleece cotton wool in an O - fill training bedchamber , producing a massive fireball . And so everyone was painfully cognizant thata exclusive discharge herewould have “ vaporized ” the shortly - to - be heroes .
And then the reentry system failed — they had no existent elbow room of controlling where they actually landed . As the BBC explained :
The best they could desire for was that the craft would touch down somewhere in the Soviet Union ’s vast land mass .
And they did . flop in the middle of Siberia . Which was full of wolf and bear . During mating season — the most aggressive of seasons .
luckily for the cosmonauts , their signal did eventually get pick up , and they were taken home as the well - deserved heroes they were — but not before drop two nights in the freeze Siberian forest .
you may learn more about Alexei Leonov ’s journey on the BBC’sCosmonauts : How Russia Won the Space Race , which premiers today at 9 necropsy andavailable here after . [ BBC ]
Image : Getty Images , Central Press / Stringer
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