Going into space in just a spacesuit is a risky business in itself. However, of the more than a hundred spacewalks that have taken place since 1965, there are a few that stand out, for example, in their duration or in what astronauts have been doing "outside" spaceship. Here are the most memorable ones.
Alexei Leonov became the first man to go into outer space. The Soviet cosmonaut spent about 20 minutes in a vacuum, after which he ran into a problem: his spacesuit was swollen and did not fit into the airlock of the ship. Leonov had to bleed some air to get back on board.
“It was really dangerous. But, fortunately, Leonov's first spacewalk was not his last,” Nicolas de Monchaux, a professor at the University of California, later wrote in his book.
First spacewalk by an American astronaut (June 3, 1965)
Three months after Leonov, astronaut Ed White became the first American to walk in outer space. White's exit also lasted about 20 minutes, and the photo of a man floating in vacuum was actively used by propagandists during the Cold War.
The most distant spacewalks from Earth (1971-1972)
The astronauts of the Apollo 15, 16 and 17 missions ventured outside on their way back from the Moon. These exits were also unique in the role of the second crew member. While one astronaut was doing outdoor work, the second one stood, leaning out of the airlock to the waist, and could enjoy the beauty of the surrounding Universe.
McCandless exit in 1984
NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless became the first person to walk in outer space without a harness. During the flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger STS-41B, McCandless used a jetpack to distance himself from the space shuttle by 100 meters and then return back.
The shortest spacewalk (September 3, 2014)
The shortest spacewalk was just 14 minutes, when American astronaut Michael Fincke suffered a depressurization of his oxygen tanks during outdoor work on the ISS. He and his partner Gennady Padalka were forced to return aboard the space station ahead of schedule. Padalka and Fincke used the Russian Orlan spacesuits because the American spacesuits had a cooling problem earlier.
Longest spacewalk (March 11, 2001)
The longest spacewalk lasted 8 hours and 56 minutes and took place during the Space Shuttle Discovery mission on March 11, 2001. NASA astronauts Susan Helms and Jim Voss worked on the construction of the International Space Station.
The most massive spacewalk (May 13, 1992)
Space Shuttle Endeavour's primary objective, STS-49, was to capture the Intelsat VI satellite, which had failed to enter geostationary orbit and was instead "stuck" in low Earth orbit. During the first two spacewalks, the two astronauts were unable to capture and repair the satellite, so a third crew member joined them for the third time. This is the only case in history when three people worked in space at the same time.
One of the most respected spacewalks was carried out by Soviet cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyov and Alexander Balandin from the Mir orbital station. The exit, the main purpose of which was to repair the damaged insulation of the Soyuz spacecraft, turned into a danger to the life of the astronauts when, upon returning to the station, its airlock broke and could not close. The cosmonauts were able to use the spare airlock in the Kvant-2 module and return to the Mir.
The most dangerous spacewalk in an American spacesuit (July 16, 2013)
A couple of minutes after European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano left the ISS, he felt water running down the back of his helmet. Parmitano could hardly get back, because the water got into his mouth, eyes and ears. The Italian astronaut's companions later estimated that about two liters of water had accumulated in his helmet. Space exploration was suspended for many months while NASA investigated the cause of the failure of the spacesuit.
The most difficult space station repairs (Skylab and ISS)
In the history of spacewalks, there were two of the most difficult repairs performed by astronauts while repairing orbital stations. The first took place in May and June 1973, when members of the first crew of the American Skylab station repaired the station, which was damaged during launch. Among other things, the astronauts installed a solar "umbrella" to cool the overheating station. The second incident occurred on November 3, 2007, when an American astronaut, riding on the Space Shuttle's robotic arm, reached the damaged ISS solar panels and repaired them while they were energized.
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 transmitting medical observations and data to the spacecraft. technical measurements, as well as the implementation of telephone communication with the commander of the ship.
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 of a person's stay in outer space is calculated from the moment he appears from the lock chamber (from the edge of the exit hatch of the ship) to the moment he enters 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 - gold medal"Cosmos" for the first in the history of mankind access to open space, the USSR pilot-cosmonaut Pavel Belyaev was awarded a diploma and a medal of 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 the exits are held Scientific research, repair work, installation of new equipment on the outer surface of the station, launch of small satellites and much more.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
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 he became 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 pilot 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, human environment, 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 he retired Civil War, following his father, whom the tsarist government sent into exile here 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 an average general education, Alex 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.
March 18, 1965, having been selected for the team of the first cosmonauts, Alexei Leonov took a direct part in the flight beyond earth's atmosphere that lasted just 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 that 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 championship of the USSR 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 Air Force Academy named after N. E. Zhukovsky.
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 lives in Moscow, leads scientific activity 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, Alexei ran into a problem that could not even have been 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 spoke to state commission with a report that ended 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
Space is a vast and unexplored space. However, human curiosity is limitless, and people are exploring more and more. This is especially true for our solar system. About 50 years have passed since the first man's spacewalk.
When was the first spacewalk performed?
On March 18, 1965, the first spacewalk was performed by Alexei Leonov. From the ship "Voskhod-2" and in the suit "Berkut" Leonov conquered the "open space" for the first time. By the way, due to the difference in pressure, the spacesuit swelled very strongly and prevented Leonov from returning to the ship. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to get back on board. The supply of oxygen in the suit was designed for only 20 minutes. Leonov depressurized the spacesuit to emergency, which led to a decrease in the spacesuit. In addition, contrary to instructions, Leonov had to squeeze head first into the airlock.
Preparation and spacewalk
Preparations for the flight were carried out very carefully. All Leonov's actions were worked out, and all emergency situations that could happen to an astronaut while trying to go into outer space, even at the cosmodrome, were played out, however, this did not help to completely avoid emergency situations.
From the Baikonur cosmodrome, at 10 am Moscow time, on March 18, 1965, the Voskhod-2 spacecraft successfully launched. After lifting into orbit, the crew began to prepare for the exit of Alexei Leonov into space.
The total time of the first spacewalk was 23 minutes, 12 of which Leonov spent in outer space in a spacesuit. As a result, it was concluded that a person is able to perform work in outer space.
Despite the assurances of the American cosmonauts, the Soviet cosmonauts made a spacewalk 2.5 months earlier than the Americans. Edward White went out into the open on June 3, 1965. And the duration of his stay was only 22 minutes.
This step allowed Soviet scientists to improve spacesuits, which ultimately increased the duration of a person's stay in outer space. And for science, it was a huge step to install new equipment, launch satellites and much more.
