Secrets of the first walk to space

More than 41 years ago, on March 18, 1965, for the first time in the history of humanity, Soviet astronaut Aleksei Leonov made a walk to outer space.

This 26-hour flight has been written a lot, but little is known that it was the flight between life and death, which could create extraordinary records in the Guinness Book of Records.

The ship was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome

Blind flight

The Soviet Union was in a hurry to take the pedestrian out into space because they felt the heat of America behind their nape in this race. Before the crew of Pavel Belyaev and Aleksei Leonov, the Soviet Union launched into an unmanned probe.

During the predetermined period, the ship door was opened to bring a ship lock into space to collect indicators of radiation, pressure, temperature . that could affect people. Everything went well but on the way back to earth, for some reason, the locker was on fire and the information gathered was gone. The result was a month before the Belyaev crew - Leonov came into space, Soviet space experts had almost no important information for the flight.

General engineer Sergei Korolev then hesitated to ask the flight crew: Continue to test and postpone the plan indefinitely or wait for 6-8 months to build another ship for the purpose of scouting like above, already then bring people to space? Both astronauts knew how Korolev waited for them to respond when Americans practically practiced this. The crew replied very simply: "We are in great form, psychology is ready. We need to fly ."

Before that, during the training process, the Soviet Union also anticipated the situation when the astronaut came out of the air and would faint, then the people in the ship must quickly pull them in. Korolev was very nervous, before he asked Leonov: " You go out, don't crawl away, just wave and come in. We just need to know that humans can work out of space. or not ".

Trouble flying suit

Immediately after the departure, there were problems: Instead of going up to an altitude of 300 km, the ship reached a height of 500 km, and what came was. Fearing that the flying suit would be deformed, Leonov, before stepping out of the locker, carefully tightened the straps around it. Then the astronaut stepped out into the air and gloves, shoes, and flying clothes began to bulge. After 50 minutes outside, Leonov received orders to turn into the lock. But it was terrible when Leonov understood that he could not enter the ship's lock.

Leonov walked out into space

As planned, Leonov had to put his foot in the front of the boat, but the large bulging clothes made him unable to do this . Feeling something was not good, the commander of the Belyaev asked what happened. Leonov replied calmly: " I can't get in because of the bulging clothes". And then a few minutes later, he offered to command: " Pasha, this is serious, I try to get in first " .

The amount of oxygen carried at that time was only 30 minutes and only 5 minutes to fly into the dark area, Leonov decided not to order from the ground but applied the lesson himself "to bring the fainting from the weightless state into the ship ". The astronaut uses the emergency pressure drop mode of the suit and immediately sets off his clothes, gloves, shoes, and Leonov to get into the lock.

Pressure trouble

Pavel Belyaev (right) and Aleksei Leonov before the flight

The bad things were behind, astronauts were about to land, but once again their lives were like a thousand pounds of hair. Suddenly the air pressure in the cabin suddenly increased: 160, 180 . 220. The whole crew did everything to remedy the situation like lowering the humidity, lowering the temperature, but the pressure continued to rise to the mark. 460 ml on mercury manometer, which means that the whole air in the ship is like a gas block, just a small catalyst is the ship will explode immediately. Because it only needs to be 360 ​​ml, this has happened. Before Yuri Gagarin's historic flight, due to increased pressure, the air pressure chamber of the astronaut Valentin Bondarenko exploded. Later in January 1967, the same thing happened in the American Apollo 1 cabin, causing three Griss, White and Chaffee astronauts to die.

When the pressure increased, both Leonov and Belyaev thought it was over. But the pressure gradually lowered. It seems that this is unexplainable. The truth is that during Leonov's departure into the air, the ship operated in a static position, so on the side of the ship turned toward the sun, it was 160 degrees higher, and on the side facing the darkness the temperature was minus 140. degree. Because of this great temperature difference, the above pressure change takes place. However, this is not the final risk. Once prepared to land, the auto locator was broken so the crew had to switch to manual positioning and then, for the first time in the history of the universe, they had to use their hands to control the device. upon landing As a result, the cabin had landed in an unspecified location: the taiga.

Secret order

A few weeks before going to space, Korolev wanted a private meeting with Belyaev and Leonov. First he met the commander of the crew, Belyaev, and asked: Is the flight crew ready to complete the mission? Belyaev answered: Everything is normal, the crew and the commander are ready. " Okay, now I check," Korolev said. "It looks like everything will be fine. We get 0.7 points now, and if we prepare half a year, we get 0.8 points. But after another week, Americans." "I will do the same flight. You know how important it is to get on first. Now I check your preparations. What would you do if Leonov didn't come back to the lock? "

Belyaev said: " We have practiced this situation on the Tu-104 plane in weightless condition. If he cannot enter, I will drag him in." Korolev asked, "But if you can't do this, will you have the courage to separate the lock and Leonov from the ship"? Belyaev was silent for a long time and said: "I believe in me. This will not happen ."

Now it was Korolev's thoughtful thought and a few minutes later he said, " I ask about your preparation. It is not a success .". Belyaev then whispered: " If required, I can do this." "Thank you" - Korolev replied calmly.

This talk was witnessed by psychologist Bogdasevsky's training center. And it has caused controversial opinions. There are many people who think this is not true, but logic is also very normal. In the position of general architect, Korolev needs to consider many situations, including the worst situations to have a timely response plan.

Leonov may be in pain when he learns that he can be left out of space. But amid the fact that an adventurer who sacrificed to save both a ship or a crew and a ship could not save it, it was clear that the first solution was more reasonable. Because at that time, the success or failure of the flight was a measure of prestige, the honor of the Soviet Union or even the US in the international arena. Thankfully, despite deadly problems, Pavel Belyaev - Aleksei Leonov has successfully completed his mission. The history of mankind has enrolled them, the first people of the earth taking a walk out into space.

Hoang Hoai Son - (Photos: Wikipedia, Itogi, AIF)