Chapter 1: The Historic Spacewalk

On March 18, 1965, Russian cosmonaut Alexey Leonov made history by stepping out of the confines of the Voskhod 2 spacecraft into the vastness of space. This moment marked the first-ever spacewalk, lasting 12 minutes and nine seconds, but it was fraught with peril.

The Russians were determined to achieve this monumental feat first. Leonov, alongside cosmonaut Pavel Belyayev, was launched into orbit aboard Voskhod 2 specifically for this mission. Once the hatch opened, Leonov was able to float freely in space after only two minutes, tethered by a 5-meter cord. However, this initial joy quickly turned into a struggle for survival.

Upon entering space, Leonov had three main objectives: attach a camera to the airlock, document the spacewalk with a camera strapped to his chest, and most importantly, survive.

Although he succeeded in attaching the airlock camera, capturing images with the chest-mounted camera proved impossible. The suit inflated too much, rendering him unable to reach the shutter button located on his thigh.

This might sound trivial, but the over-inflation of his suit caused it to malfunction, leading to a dangerous rise in his body temperature by 1.8 degrees Celsius, nearly resulting in heat stroke. In later interviews, he described the uncomfortable sensation of feeling "sloshed around" in his suit.

In a BBC interview, he recounted:

“My suit was becoming deformed. My hands had slipped out of the gloves, and my feet came out of the boots. The suit felt loose around my body. I had to do something. I couldn’t pull myself back using the cord. And what’s more, with this misshapen suit, it would be impossible to fit through the airlock.”

To navigate this crisis, he used a valve on the suit to release enough pressure to re-enter the airlock. However, the nitrogen in his bloodstream caused a condition akin to the bends, specific to the space environment.

Even after re-entering the spacecraft with Belyayev, challenges persisted. The inflatable airlock's ejection caused the spacecraft to spin, and they faced another issue when oxygen levels spiked.

Leonov has often remarked in subsequent interviews that the mission was riddled with mistakes. Their flight path was significantly off, putting them about 200 kilometers higher than intended, just 5 kilometers shy of hazardous radiation levels.

It seems they could have used the expertise of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson to rectify those calculations.

Chapter 2: The Profound Perspective of Space

What left a lasting impression on Leonov, shared by many who have ventured into space, was the profound realization of humanity's smallness in the grand scheme of the universe. Witnessing Earth from that vantage point, he felt a deep sense of insignificance compared to the cosmos. At times, he noted, the experience was overwhelming; he could hear his breath echoing through his helmet, amplifying his thoughts as they reverberated in his mind.

A fun tidbit: the sound of Leonov's breathing was recorded and later incorporated into the soundtrack of the iconic film "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Despite the mission's imperfections, Leonov's 12-minute journey into space remains unforgettable. Recently, he celebrated his 85th birthday just a day after cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Alexey Ovchinin executed a much longer and routine spacewalk, paying tribute to the pioneering hero by decorating their suits in his honor.

Today, Leonov passed away at the age of 85, having achieved something only 536 individuals in human history have accomplished, and he lived to share his incredible story.

The first video explores the near-fatal experience of the first human to walk in space, highlighting the dangerous challenges he faced during this historic mission.

The second video delves into the dramatic weight loss and perilous circumstances that the first spacewalker endured during his brief yet life-threatening venture into the cosmos.