Fifty years ago today, cosmonaut Alexei Leonov made history when he stepped outside the Voshkod 2 spacecraft and became the first person ever to walk in space. As a small step, as a great leap, Leonov’s 12-minute spacewalk was an adventure for the ages — and it almost killed him.
The BBC has the story of how his spacesuit started inflating into a death trap:
At this point the cosmonaut realised something was wrong. The lack of atmospheric pressure in space had slowly caused his spacesuit to inflate like a balloon. He recalls:
“My suit was becoming deformed, my hands had slipped out of the gloves, 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.”
In five minutes he would be in the Earth’s shadow, and plunged into total darkness. Without telling ground control, the cosmonaut decided to bleed half of the air out of his spacesuit through a valve in its lining. This risked starving his body of oxygen, but if he couldn’t get back inside the capsule, he’d be dead anyway.
Leonov let out a little oxygen at a time to reduce the pressure. But as he did so, he started to feel the first hints of decompression sickness.
“I began to get pins and needles in my legs and hands. I was entering the danger zone, I knew this could be fatal.”
He started coiling the cord in order to haul himself back. When he finally reached the airlock, he pushed the camera in, grabbed the sides and lurched through head first.
The extreme physical exertion had caused his temperature to soar; he was now at risk of heatstroke and sweating uncontrollably. The globules filled his helmet, obscuring his vision.
Leonov was supposed to re-enter the airlock feet first. Getting in the wrong way meant he had to turn himself around in the cramped space to make sure the umbilical cord was inside and the hatch was locked.
He says: “It was the most difficult thing: I’m in this suit and I had to turn around in the airlock. But with the perspiration, I couldn’t see anything.”
“I don’t normally sweat much, but on that day I lost 6kg in weight.”
After curling around in his bulky suit, in such a narrow space, Leonov finally made it back inside the craft.
(BBC)
Jesus Christ that’s most of my phobia list right there.