Voskhod 2

Key facts

Mission & specifications

Mission

Voskhod 2 achieved the first spacewalk, and nearly became a tragedy in the process. Launched on 18 March 1965 with Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov aboard, the mission carried an inflatable cloth airlock fitted to the side of the capsule. Soon after reaching orbit Leonov climbed into it, opened the outer hatch and floated free into the void on a tether — the first human being to walk in space — spending about twelve minutes outside as the craft passed over the Earth far below. Then the danger began. In the vacuum his pressurised suit had ballooned so stiff that he could not bend to climb back through the narrow airlock; running low on time and air, and telling no one on the ground, he bled pressure out of his own suit until he could just squeeze inside, hauling himself in head-first. The ordeal was not over. As the crew prepared to return, the automatic guidance system failed, forcing Belyayev to fire the retrorockets and steer the re-entry by hand — the first manual Soviet landing. They came down far off course, deep in the snowbound forests of the Ural region, and spent a freezing night in the wilderness, reportedly with wolves about, before rescuers on skis could reach them two days later. The Soviets presented the flight as a flawless triumph, and only years afterward did its hair-raising details emerge. Leonov, who sketched the first artwork ever drawn in space, went on in 1975 to command the Soviet side of the Apollo–Soyuz mission, the first international handshake in orbit.

1. 1965Launch of Voskhod 2Launch

   Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov reach orbit carrying an inflatable airlock.

2. 1965The first spacewalkSpacewalk / EVA

   Leonov floats free for about twelve minutes on a tether, the first human to walk in space.

3. 1965A near-disaster outsideMilestone

   His suit balloons in the vacuum; Leonov secretly bleeds pressure to squeeze back through the airlock.

4. 1965A manual, off-course landingLanding

   With the automatic system failed, the crew steers re-entry by hand and lands deep in the Ural taiga.

5. 1965Two days in the frozen forestMilestone

   The cosmonauts wait through the cold, reportedly with wolves about, until rescuers on skis reach them.

6. 1975Leonov and Apollo–SoyuzMilestone

   A decade on, Leonov commands the Soviet side of the first international crewed docking.

Images

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