Leonov was the first astronaut who walked in space in the world, and his popularity in the Soviet Union was second only to Gagarin.
1934 On May 30th, leonov was born in Kemerovo. As a teenager, he was deeply influenced by tsiolkovsky, the father of Russian space. Qi's sci-fi masterpiece Beyond the Earth has become a guide for leonov to enter the space industry.
From 65438 to 0957, leonov graduated from Chuguyev Aviation School and worked as a pilot in the aviation unit. 1960 Together with Gagarin and others, he was selected as the first astronaut team in the Soviet Union.
1964, korolev, the chief space designer of the Soviet Union, put forward an experimental scheme for astronauts to walk outside the cabin, and leonov was chosen as the first person to carry out "spacewalk".
1March, 965 18, the Soviet Union launched Ascension Island 2 spacecraft, and leonov took off with Barville Bereyaev. 1 1 34, leonov, wearing a spacesuit of about 90kg, carrying a "life support system" backpack and tying a 5.75m-long rope, jumped into the vast space from the outer door of the spaceship.
Leonov was awarded the title of "Soviet hero" for his space trip, which will go down in space history forever.
Alexei leonov-the first spacewalk of mankind
After returning, leonov (left) and korolev (right) took a group photo. There are two signatures on the photo. Illustrated books
Accidents in space are unpredictable.
According to the plan, astronauts walking in space will be connected to the spacecraft through a set of safety ropes, and both communication and oxygen must be delivered to the astronauts through the ropes. Of course, astronauts themselves will also carry emergency oxygen supplies. When the companion is walking in space, the commander in the spacecraft must also wear a spacesuit so that he can go out for rescue in an emergency. All possible emergencies are simulated in ground and airborne weightless laboratories. But later practice proved that in real space, there are always unexpected accidents.
On March 1965, 18, after the successful launch of Shengtian 2 into orbit, two astronauts immediately began to prepare for the spacewalk. Spacecraft commander Pai Belev helped leonov to put on his emergency backpack, fasten the safety rope and send it to the airlock. When the spacecraft began to fly around the earth for the second time, the decompression air gate opened and leonov entered the unknown space.
Stuck in the hatch, difficult to return.
"I feel good and reported what I saw." He recalled. But after "floating" for more than ten minutes, leonov realized something was wrong. The spacesuit that was originally fitted began to swell, and finally almost completely blocked his action. Leonov's hands and feet are no longer in gloves and boots, which is totally different from the ground experiment.
Due to the excessive deformation of the spacesuit, leonov could not complete the basic actions in space. When he tried to grab the handle of the hatch, the gloves didn't listen to his fingers at all. What's more, leonov is still holding the camera that has just been removed. When leonov was about to return to the airlock, he found himself trapped at the door after inflation.
At this critical moment, leonov knew there was no time to contact the ground controller, so he decided to open the special valve of the spacesuit and reduce the internal air pressure by 200%. However, it is dangerous to do so. If you decompress quickly, you will have the symptoms of decompression sickness like a diver coming out of the water too quickly. When the decompression of human body is too fast, the inert gas (such as nitrogen) remaining in joints or tissues cannot be sent out of the body with blood circulation to form bubbles, which may cause acute obstacles of the body, such as dizziness and even shock.
"I know I don't have time to contact the ground. I can imagine their research process, and I have to find a solution myself. " Leonov said. Fortunately, when he opened the valve, the spacesuit immediately returned to normal.
When leonov finally entered the airlock with his head down, he found another problem: how to close the hatch behind him? The diameter of the airlock cabin is only 1.2m, while that of leonov in spacesuit is1.9m. In order to turn around, leonov has to "fold" himself, and it is not easy to complete this action in a huge spacesuit. When he turned around, the spacesuit was almost covered with leonov's sweat. A minute and a half later, leonov successfully closed the hatch.
What if leonov can't get back to the boat? It was once rumored that he would swallow the suicide pill he carried with him and end his life. But leonov himself said that this is sheer nonsense.
Miss the first landing opportunity
After abandoning the airlock, the pyrotechnic gas released by the spacecraft caused its solar sensor to fail. The function of this equipment is to guide the "Ascension 2" to return. This failure caused the spacecraft to lose its way in space. In order to avoid "going astray", leonov and Believ shut down the spacecraft's automatic navigation system five minutes before the scheduled return operation. They only operate manually when the second landing opportunity comes.
According to the scheduled plan, the instrument cabin of the spacecraft should be automatically separated 10 second after the start of the return flight, but this setting did not take effect. Fortunately, the backup plan worked: when the temperature sensor detected the high temperature during the return flight, it issued a separation instruction.
Due to manual operation, the spacecraft was hundreds of miles away from the scheduled landing site and finally landed in an uninhabited coniferous forest. It was not until 24 hours after landing that the lumberjack who came to the rescue found "Ascension 2" in the snow-covered forest.
After studying the return capsule of Ascension 2, technicians also found more "fear after death": when the spacecraft touched the ground, the opened parachute was separated by the signal sent by the sensor, which was originally to prevent the spacecraft from being pulled by the parachute after stopping. However, if the sensor hit the treetops of the forest at that time, it would lead to the early separation of the parachute and the free landing of the spacecraft, with disastrous consequences.
After learning that the "Ascension 2" astronaut had a close call, "General Director" korolev lamented: "God saved me." [ 1]
Alexey Leonov- personal influence
Alexei leonov Atlas
1975 July 15 is a memorable day in the history of human spaceflight. On this day, the spacecraft of two space powers, the United States and the Soviet Union, successfully docked into space orbit, which was called "space handshake". When the door of the docking module was opened, astronaut leonov of the Soviet spacecraft 19 and astronaut Stamford of Apollo 18 of the United States warmly shook hands. Leonov said to Stamford in English, "Nice to meet you."
Television viewers all over the world watched this historic scene with excitement.
Leonov was the only astronaut in the Soviet Union who walked in space at that time. He has valuable experience in swimming between stars, so he is certainly the first choice of the Soviet Union. Brezhnev, who was deeply interested in the space industry and was then General Secretary of the Soviet Union, once said excitedly to leonov: "Alexei, we are not' appointing' you, but' selecting' you. You will represent the whole Soviet Union and be responsible for everything. "
But for leonov, who has been through many battles, the biggest challenge of this mission is to pass the foreign language barrier first, so that he can communicate with American astronauts after docking. Although leonov graduated from the military academy, he knew nothing about English words except how to change the singular into the plural.
Fortunately, both the United States and the Soviet Union sent powerful teachers to train astronauts in foreign languages. The Russian teacher of the American astronaut is Alex Tatishchev, a descendant of the famous Russian historian Tatishchev, while the English teacher of the Soviet astronaut is a senior translator of the Soviet Defense Minister.
In the "space handshake", leonov achieved a feat in the history of Soviet space. The political significance of "space handshake" is no less than its scientific and technological significance. It has built a bridge of communication between the two superpowers, so that the people of the United States and the Soviet Union, who have been under the cloud of the Cold War for a long time, feel a mild warm current and vaguely see the brilliant prospect of the peaceful use of space by the people of the world.