In March 1965, the flight of the Voskhod-2 spacecraft took place. The crew consisting of cosmonauts P. I. Belyaev and A. A. Leonov faced a difficult, but very responsible task - to carry out the first human spacewalk in history.
The direct implementation of the experiment fell to the lot of Alexei Leonov, and on March 18 he successfully coped with it. The astronaut went into outer space, moved away from the ship by 5 meters and spent a total of 12 minutes and 9 seconds outside of it.
The flight of Voskhod was not without emergency situations and funny cases. It is difficult to describe how much mental and physical strength the people who were preparing this grandiose experiment - man's exit into outer space had to spend. Interesting facts and little-known details of the flight and its preparation became the basis of this article.
Idea
The idea that a man's spacewalk is possible came to Korolev back in 1963. The designer suggested that soon such an experience would not only be desirable, but absolutely necessary. He turned out to be right. In subsequentFor decades, astronautics has developed rapidly. For example, maintaining the normal operation of the ISS in general would have been impossible without external installation and repair work, which once again proves how necessary the first manned spacewalk was. The year 1964 was the beginning of official preparations for this experiment.
But then, in 1964, in order to implement such a daring project, it was necessary to seriously consider the design of the ship. As a result, the well-proven Voskhod-1 was taken as the basis. One of its windows was replaced with an exit lock, and the crew was reduced from three to two. The lock chamber itself was inflatable and located outside the ship. After the completion of the experiment, before landing, she had to separate herself from the hull. This is how the Voskhod-2 spacecraft appeared.
There was another, more serious problem. Such a dangerous experiment had to be tested on animals first. However, this was abandoned, considering that the development of a special space suit for the animal was too troublesome and costly. In addition, he would not give an answer to the most important question: how will a person behave in outer space? It was decided to conduct experiments immediately on humans.
Today astronauts are able to leave the ship for several hours and perform very complex manipulations in outer space. But in the 1960s, it seemed completely fantastic, or even suicidal.
Crew
Initially, in the group of astronauts preparing for the flight,consisted of Leonov, Gorbatko and Khrunov. Belyaev was on the verge of expulsion from the cosmonaut corps for he alth reasons, and only at the insistence of Gagarin was he included in the flight preparation group.
As a result, two crews were formed: the main one - Belyaev, Leonov - and the backup - Gorbatko, Khrunov. Special requirements were imposed on the crews of this expedition. The team had to work as a whole, and the astronauts had to be compatible with each other in terms of psychology.
The test results showed that Belyaev has great endurance and composure, is able not to lose his head in any situation, and Leonov, on the contrary, is impulsive, impulsive, but at the same time unusually brave and courageous. These two people, so different in character, could work perfectly in pairs, which was a necessary condition in order to carry out the first manned spacewalk.
Workouts
The first three months, the cosmonauts studied the design and devices of the new ship, then followed by long training in weightlessness. This required an agile aircraft and a very experienced pilot who could perform aerobatic maneuvers with confidence. For an hour-long flight, the aircraft was able to simulate weightlessness for a total of about 2 minutes. It was during this time that the astronauts had to have time to work out the entire planned program.
Initially they flew on MIG twins, but the astronauts tied with belts were unable to move. It was decided to take a more spacious Tu-104LL. Inside the aircraft, a mock-up of a part of the spaceship with an airlock, on this impromptu simulator, the main training took place.
Uncomfortable suits
Today in the Museum of Cosmonautics you can see the same spacesuit in which Leonov carried out a man's spacewalk. A photo of a smiling cosmonaut in a helmet with the inscription "USSR" spread all over the newspapers of the world, but no one could imagine how much effort this smile cost.
Specially for Voskhod-2, special spacesuits were developed, which bore the formidable name Berkut. They had an additional sealed shell, and a satchel with a life support system was placed behind the cosmonaut's back. For better light reflection, even the color of the suits was changed: white was used instead of the traditional orange. The total weight of the Berkut was about 100 kg.
All training sessions were already in spacesuits, the supply system of which left much to be desired. The air supply was extremely weak, which means that at the slightest movement, the astronaut was immediately covered with perspiration from tension.
Besides that, the suits were very uncomfortable. They were so dense that in order to clench the hand into a fist, it was necessary to apply an effort of almost 25 kilograms. To be able to make any movement in such clothes, he had to constantly train. The work was worn out, but the astronauts stubbornly went to the cherished goal - to make it possible for a man to go into outer space. Leonov, by the way, was considered the strongest and most enduring in the group, which largely predetermined his main role in the experiment.
Demonstration performance
A great friend of the USSR, Charles de Gaulle, flew to Moscow in the midst of training, and Khrushchev decided to brag to him about the successes of Soviet cosmonautics. He decided to show the Frenchman how astronauts work out a man's spacewalk. It immediately became clear that it was the crew that would participate in this “performance” that would be sent on a real flight. By order of Gagarin, at this crucial moment, Khrunov is replaced by Belyaev. According to Khrunov, he did not understand the motives for this replacement and for a long time retained a grudge against Gagarin for this inexplicable act.
Later Gagarin explained his position to Khrunov, he believed that it was necessary to give Belyaev one last chance to fly into space. Young Khrunov could do this more than once later, besides, Belyaev was better suited to Leonov from a psychological point of view.
Trouble before launch
The day before the start there was a big trouble. Due to the negligence of a security guard, an inflatable airlock hung out of the ship to check the tightness unexpectedly fell and broke. There was no spare, and therefore it was decided to use the one on which the astronauts trained for a long time. This incident could have been fatal, but, fortunately, everything worked out, the reused airlock survived, and the first manned spacewalk took place.
Spacewalk
There have been many theories about human behavior in outer space. Detractors claimed that an astronaut who stepped outside the spaceship, immediately welded to it, will be deprived of the ability to move, or even go completely crazy. It is very difficult to imagine what else a man's spacewalk could turn out to be. 1965 could easily have been the year of the grand failure of the Soviet space program. However, only practice could confirm or refute these pessimistic theories.
Besides, no rescue systems had yet been developed at that time. The only thing that was done for the astronauts was permission, in which case, just open the hatch and put your hand out of it.
When the spacecraft entered the assigned orbit, Leonov began to prepare for the exit. Everything went according to plan, when the X-hour came, the astronaut gently pushed off and floated out of the airlock into outer space.
The most terrible predictions of skeptics did not come true, and the astronaut felt pretty well. He completed the entire prescribed program, and it was time to return to the ship. There were some problems with this. The suit, swollen in weightlessness, did not allow Leonov to enter the airlock. Then he, without consulting anyone, independently lowered the pressure in the suit and rushed into the airlock head first, and not vice versa, as planned. The first human spacewalk was completed, and Alexei Leonov forever inscribed his name in the history of astronautics.
PE on the descent
"Voskhod-2" had many shortcomings, and after the successful completion of the flight program, an emergency occurred. When the exit airlock was fired, the solar-star orientation sensors were stuck. When the shipwas making its 16th orbit around the Earth, an order was received from the MCC to descend. But the ship continued to fly, as if nothing had happened. When he went on the 17th revolution, it became clear that the automatic attitude control system did not work, and the crew had to switch to manual control. The flight, the main task of which was a human spacewalk, could have ended in disaster.
At the cost of incredible efforts, Belyaev and Leonov regained control of the ship, but still they were late with turning off the engines by almost a minute. As a result, the planned landing site was left far behind and the descender landed in the dense Permian forests.
Rescue operation
The astronauts stayed in the winter forest for two long days. True, one helicopter still tried to throw off their warm clothes, but missed, and the bundle was lost in snowdrifts.
The helicopter could not land in the deep snow among the trees, and the astronauts did not have the necessary equipment to cut down the trees, or to fill the snow with water and make a makeshift ice landing site. In the end, the rescue team reached the frozen astronauts on foot and was able to get them out of the thicket.
Despite all the difficulties of preparation and unpleasant incidents during the flight, Belyaev and Leonov coped with their main task - they carried out a manned spacewalk. The date of this event became one of the most significant milestones in the history of Soviet cosmonautics.
