Voskhod 2

Voskhod 2 was a Soviet manned space mission. It set another space milestone as one of the cosmonauts on board became the first person to "walk in space". The spacecraft was fitted with a special inflatable airlock that was extended once it had reached orbit. Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov donned a space suit and ventured outside the craft while the other member of the two-person crew, Pavel Belyayev remained inside.

Despite this spectacular feat, the mission was plagued with problems. After his ten minutes outside the Voskhod, Leonov found that his suit had stiffened to the point where he could not re-enter the airlock. Leonov worked around this by allowing some of his suit's pressure to bleed off, making it easier for him to bend the joints. After coming back inside, there were problems with sealing the hatch properly, and this was followed by a troublesome re-entry, when like some earlier Vostok spacecraft, the Voskhod's descent module did not separate cleanly. Finally, the crew landed in an inhospitable and heavily-wooded part of the Ural Mountains and spent a night surrounded by wolves while waiting for their recovery team.

Crew

• Aleksei Leonov
• Pavel Belyayev