Overview
- Leonov, who left the Voskhod 2 capsule in March 1965, completed the first human spacewalk tethered to the craft.
- His suit ballooned from internal gas pressure and turned rigid, so he vented oxygen to lower pressure and squeeze back through the airlock despite known medical risks.
- After he re-entered, the automatic landing system failed and the crew switched to manual control, which led to an off-target touchdown in Siberian forest.
- The two cosmonauts spent nearly two days in freezing conditions with wolves nearby and survived on emergency gear until a ski team reached them.
- NASA, the European Space Agency, and Russia’s Presidential Library document the episode as a Cold War feat that also set the template for safer, routine spacewalks on later missions.