First Man To Walk In Space Reveals How Mission Nearly Ended In Disaster

wired_parrot writes Nearly fifty years after the first spacewalk by soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, he's given a rare interview to the BBC revealing how the mission very nearly ended in disaster. Minutes after he stepped into space, Leonov realised his suit had inflated like a balloon, preventing him from getting back inside. Later on, the cosmonauts narrowly avoided being obliterated in a huge fireball when oxygen levels soared inside the craft. And on the way back to Earth, the crew was exposed to enormous G-forces, landing hundreds of kilometres off target in a remote corner of Siberia populated by wolves and bears.

Comments

The Russian space program was amazing

[laird]

If you see the Russian spacecraft, it's amazing how determined they were to compete, relatively successfully with the US space program, despite the fact that their manufacturing capabilities were not really up to the task. But they used whatever they had, and pushed hard. So, for example, while US spacecraft are beautiful, with aluminum skins with countersunk rivets to reduce drag, etc., the Russian vehicles looked like tractors - thick sheet metal and bolts, getting into space through sheer determination. It was particularly striking with how they got a third astronaut into their two-man ship, so they matched Apollo, by taking the third man and jamming him in upside down. They made the lead engineer who came up with that idea take the first flight, so he had the incentive to actually make it work. And their venus probes - those guys just didn't give up! But definitely playing by different rules than the US - after a vehicle failure, and we shut everything down and analyzed to make it safer. With the Russians, a vehicle failure meant re-writing the history books (to remove the failed flight, erase astronauts from photos, etc.) and launching _more_.

Re:The Russian space program was amazing

[Noryungi]

Your comment seems very condescending.

Let's not forget the Russians were the first to send a satellite around the Earth, the first to send an animal into space, the first to send a man into space, the first to send a woman into space, the first to have a space mission that lasted more than a day, the first to have a spacewalk, the fist to send a satellite to orbit the Moon, the first to have fully automated rendez-vous between two satellites, etc., etc., etc.

Sure, their spacecraft may look "ugly" (or at least, "uglier") than western or American ones, but they get the job done and they are reliable workhorses.

I believe the differences between the two is mostly to the "no nonsense" approach to the Russians, and the fact that they like re-using designs and equipment that work instead of constantly re-inventing the wheel.

Think about it this way: the USA created the space shuttle and sank billions of dollars into it. The Russians kept improving the Soyuz rockets and capsules. These days, the space shuttle has been retired, while both Soyuz still fly regularly. Which approach is better? I don't know, but you certainly can't blame the Russians for creating "ugly" machines, as long as they are functional and good at what they do.

Recommended viewing: "The Red Stuff" about the very first Cosmonaut class of the USSR. You can view it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Re:The Russian space program was amazing

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't forget, Soviet Russian was the first to send a manned mission outside our solar system.

It was a one-way flight by mistake; the guy screamed until he ran out of air, but, hey, it's gotta count for something.

A USA Naval aviator told me that the Soviet Russians did only what was necessary in flight--titantium on the leading edges and not entire wings; rivets unleveled where it didn't matter instead of everywhere like the USA. The Soviets Russians didn't economize; it's that they didn't have to put on a "beauty pageant" like the USA manufacturers who were going against competitors and "pretty" was necessary to win. Plus, Soviet Russian Theology valued the lives of their cosmonauts as an expedable commodity.

Re:The Russian space program was amazing

[k6mfw]

If you see the Russian spacecraft, it's amazing how determined they were to compete, relatively successfully with the US space program,

James Harford in the 1997 book "Korolev" he interviewed several of Sergei Korolev colleages and one of them said when Kennedy announced the race to the Moon, the Soviets can either get in the race or not. They did neither. There were those in Politburo very interested in manned spaceflight, others that were not ("stop wasting resources with man in space which is only good for propaganda instead of actual military hardware). When Khrushchev was ":sent to Siberia" Korolev lost much support. He was able to proceed with Soyuz, N1 (he was also chief of many other programs) but their space program was not given all resources. So there was not enough resources for development and ground tests, N1 never had successful launch, Soyuz had it's growing pains and its first manned flight was a fatality.

I wonder if our space program is experiencing this "we're doing neither." No shortcuts are being taken in SLS and Orion development but there is no significant funding for landers and habitat modules. And where is US going? Moon, Mars, or an asteroid? Depends on who you talk to.

Only revealing thing...

[denzacar]

...is how when I first read about this back in the late '80s it was not "wolves and bears".

It was A wolf, reported by the rescuers as "going in their direction".
To which the cosmonauts, knowing what they've just been through, laughed.

Gus Grissom

[ganjadude]

not only that, but no one believed him for years that the hatch blew. really messed him up mentally https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...