Ep. 5: The First Spacewalk

By: Carrie Gibson

On 18th March 1965, the first human walked in space. Broadcast live on TV, it very nearly ended in disaster. Russian Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov tells his story.

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Fascinating

On March 18, 1965, Russian cosmonaut Alexei Lenov made history as the first human to walk in space. His flight led to future space exploration that led to people on the moon. It also led to the International Space Station, modern day space satellites that provide everything from GPS, weather, and monitor the planet.

I knew the basics of this flight but there was still a lot that I didn’t know about. I didn’t realize that the flight, taken in the Voskhod 2, was actually a 2 person flight: Alexi Lenov and Pavel Belyayev. I also never realized that there were major malfunctions with this flight that could have easily have caused the deaths of both of these astronauts. During the spacewalk, there was an issue with Alexei’s spacesuit that could have easily caused issues on entering the airlock to reenter the Voskhod 2. The automatic re-entry system also failed, leading Belyayev to manually pilot the ship back to earth. They landed in the Taiga, a snowbound icy part of Siberia, which meant they had to survive in the snow until they were rescued.

This was a mission that should have never have been completed but with these two skills it did. I am amazed at the risks taken by these space pioneers. Also, I really enjoyed listening to Alexei’s interviews (interpreted) in this one. It was fascinating how he didn’t realize how much of an impact he was making on the world. To him it was just his job.

Great series

I've really enjoyed listening to this series. The events highlighted range from famous to obscure and each is illuminating in its own way about the state of the current world.