Steppin' Out with Alexei Leonov

[beamjockey]

In an ongoing parade of fiftieth anniversaries of events that deeply impressed me as a youth, let's congratulate Alexei Leonov, Russian painter, retired general, and legendary cosmonaut.

On 18 March 1965, Leonov exited the Voshkod 2 capsule through an inflated airlock, floating in space for 12 minutes.


Painting by General Alexei Leonov of the Voshkod 2 spacewalk.


Here are the first-person accounts of Pavel Belayev and Alexei Leonov as published in Life's 14 May 1965 issue-- sanitized to downplay the worrisome difficulty of returning to the Vostok capsule. Leonov's suit wouldn't fit in the airlock; he reduced the suit's pressure to a hazardous level, risking an attack of "the bends," in order to get it flexible enough to squeeze in.

Working outside a spacecraft, in a suit, had often been portrayed in books and films. I was thrilled to know that it was happening in reality. Truly, we were living in the Space Age. And spacewalks have continued since that day. Спасибо, General Leonov!

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