7. Conducting the first-ever “space walk” on March 18, 1965, the crew of the Voskhod 2 braved the vacuum of space in a historic landmark
Launched on the morning of March 18, 1965, Voskhod 2, carrying two crew members, made history when Alexey Leonov became the first person to leave a spacecraft in orbit and perform an extra-vehicular activity. Lasting for approximately 12 minutes, carrying a suicide capsule in the event of failure Leonov bade farewell to his colleague, Pavel Belyayev, and stepped into the empty vacuum of space to conduct the first-ever “space walk”. Suffering from heatstroke, with his core body temperature increasing almost two degrees, Leonov was dangerously forced to depressurize his suit below safe limits to fit back inside the airlock.
Unable to return to their seats whilst wearing their custom spacesuits, the orbital module, without the calculated center of mass, was delayed disconnecting from the landing module by forty-six seconds. This delay caused the returning spacecraft to land almost four hundred kilometers from the intended landing site, instead arriving in the remote forests of Upper Kama Upland. Surrounded by wolves and bears, as well as facing freezing temperatures, the duo were forced to spend the night huddled together waiting for rescue. Arriving the following day, the pair were, eventually, safely retrieved from the site and hailed as heroes.