Hello steemit community,
Today I found out that the first man to walk in space almost got stuck out there. That lucky individual was Alexei Leonov, he was born in the Soviet Union on May 30, 1934. He was one of the twenty Soviet Air Force Pilots to be chosen for the first cosmonaut group.
After eighteen months of training, Leonov was ready to become the first person to walk in space.
The Voskhod 2 launched on March 18, 1965. with Leonov and Pavel Belyayev on board, while Leonov attempted the space walk. It was the first trip into space for both of the crew members.
He ran into a problem while trying to get back into the spacecraft after the walk on space.
He maneuvered himself back to the airlock, but then realized that his suit had become incredibly stiff. Due to the lack of atmospheric pressure, it had bloated with oxygen. His feet and hands had pulled away from his boots and gloves, and he knew it was going to be incredibly difficult to get himself back into the ship safely.
There was only one way to do it: wriggle in head-first while bleeding off the oxygen in his suit.
Leonov thought about contacting mission control about his predicament and let them know about the risky thing he was about to do, but decided not to. He knew that he was the only one who could do anything about the situation and he didn’t want to worry the people on the ground.
As he released oxygen and exerted himself, his suit began to heat up dangerously with his core body temperature rising 3.2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.8 degrees Celsius), as he slowly clambered into the airlock inch by inch.
Once he was finally in, he had to let even more air out so he could curl his body around to close the hatch, which he eventually accomplished. At last with the hatch sealed, Belyayev was able to pressurize the airlock again and Leonov made it back inside the spacecraft after the heart-stopping few minutes of struggle.
On the ground, people had watched the very first spacewalk, though Leonov’s struggle to get back inside the spacecraft wasn’t televised. At the first sign of trouble, the transmissions shown on televisions on Earth “randomly” stopped with no explanation, with most assuming technical difficulties with the broadcast feed.
Leonov was thankful they didn’t show his re-enty, “My family was therefore spared the anxiety they would have had to endure had they known how close I came to being stranded in space.”
Unfortunately, this was only the start of the problems. Just five minutes before they were scheduled to begin re-entry, the crewmen discovered that the automatic guidance system wasn’t functioning. They would have to land the spacecraft manually and were also dangerously low on fuel to maneuver to boot but at the end due to wisdom and working together the attempt came out successful.
Thanks so much for reading, Am new and would appreciate any Suggestions..
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SOURCE: Gizmodo
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https://gizmodo.com/the-first-man-to-walk-in-space-almost-got-stuck-out-the-1441927234
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