[FPSPACE] VOSKHOD 2 EVA REVELATIONS

[Jim Oberg]

----- Original Message -----
From: "spacefan" <spaceflightnews at gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, March 20, 2005 2:47 AM
Subject: [FPSPACE] VOSKHOD 2 EVA REVELATIONS
> Does anyone know what Alexei said?  Interested to know about the
> "unknown details"
> _______________________________________________

It was also on Novosti:

2005-03-18 09:54     * RUSSIA MARKS FIRST SPACE WALK ANNIVERSARY

    MOSCOW, March 18 (RIA Novosti) - Soviet pilot-cosmonaut Alexei Leonov
performed the first space walk in history exactly 40 years ago.

    Alexei Leonov and mission commander Pavel Belyayev flew aboard the
Voskhod-2 spacecraft. In his written report to state-commission members
(that was submitted after the flight), Alexei Leonov noted that all
Voskhod-2 EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activity)-control systems and the space
suit's autonomous systems had functioned without a hitch. According to
Leonov, he had spent 23 minutes and 41 seconds in outer space, floating
freely for 12 minutes and nine seconds.

    I moved 5.35 meters away from the spacecraft, Leonov wrote. He
approached the Voskhod-2 several times, subsequently moving away from it.

    In Leonov's words, space walks are quite feasible. Nor should man
perceive them as something mysterious, Leonov noted. A cosmonaut wearing a
special space suit replete with life-support systems can exist in outer
space, performing purposeful and coordinated operations. One can perform
manual work in outer space, conducting research, too, Leonov added.

    Leonov admitted later on that he and Belyayev had faced emergency
situations more than once during their flight. Temperature-and-humidity
levels increased considerably during the 26-hour space mission. Space-suit
systems also developed a malfunction. Internal pressure rose, inflating the
space suit. Consequently, Leonov faced numerous problems, while re-entering
the rather narrow Voskhod-2 airlock. The spacecraft's guidance system was
not up to the mark either. The descent module therefore had to land in the
manual mode. And, finally, Alexei Leonov and Pavel Belyayev landed in the
Perm region's Usolye district, rather than in a preset area. Both men had to
spend nearly 24 hours in snow-bound taiga, before they were rescued.



2005-03-18 19:32     * SPACE WALKS ROUTINE FORTY YEARS ON

    MOSCOW. (Yuri Zaitsev, expert, Institute of Space Research, for RIA
Novosti). Forty years ago to this day, a man first walked in space after
stepping out of the Voskhod-2 craft piloted by cosmonauts Pavel Belyayev and
Alexei Leonov.

    "When flying in space, you cannot avoid stepping into it, just like, for
example, when you are sailing across the oceans, you cannot be afraid of
falling overboard and learning how to swim ... A cosmonaut venturing out
into space should be able to do all the necessary maintenance work (...).
This is no fantasy, it is a necessity, and the more people go up into space,
the more they will feel this need." These words from a space legend, chief
designer of Soviet space rockets Sergei Korolyov, were prophetic.

    Today, space walks are a regular occurrence. The creation and
maintenance of the International Space Station would have been impossible
without long walks and work in space - specialists call it extravehicular
activity.

    Since manned space exploration began, 240 space walks have been made
(March 1, 2005 data). And if the first hundred of them took 27 years to
perform, the second required only nine years. How were things forty years
ago? In the second circuit of orbital flight Alexei Leonov, wearing a
special spacesuit, stepped through a lock chamber into deep space.

    Five times the cosmonaut flew away from the ship and five times got
back. All this time his spacesuit maintained room temperature within, while
its external surface heated up to plus 60 degrees in the Sun, and cooled
down to minus 100 degrees in the shade. In effect, the spacesuit was a kind
of thermos consisting of several layers of aluminum-covered plastic film.
Linings from screen-and-vacuum thermal insulation were also inserted in his
gloves and footwear. True, the suit for space walks, compared with ones worn
by cosmonauts during their early missions was now much heavier - 100
kilograms - compared with 30, but in zero gravity that played no role.
Leonov performed all his movements relatively easily, and, with arms wide
open, he hovered above the Earth in a vacuum.

    Problems began when the command to return came in. It proved to be a
difficult exercise, as the spacesuit had become swollen in the outside
vacuum. That was to be expected, but no one thought it would balloon to such
an extent. Leonov just could not get into the lock hatch. Attempt followed
attempt, but to no avail, while the oxygen supplies in the spacesuit (two
2-liter bottles) were calculated only for 20 minutes. True, in case of
emergency, the lock was provided with a stand-by oxygen system linked by a
hose to the spacesuit. But the time for a command to jettison the chamber
was approaching rapidly after which the cosmonaut could practically never
get back into the craft.

    In the end, after consulting with Belyayev, Leonov made an unorthodox
decision. He bled the inside pressure in the spacesuit to the maximum and
contrary to his instructions to enter the chamber and further the ship feet
first, he "swam inside" headfirst and, fortunately, managed to do so.

    This was the result of grueling pre-flight training and the optimum
selection of crewmembers. Many experts believed that someone devoid of a
customary fulcrum could not perform a single movement outside the ship.
Others thought that the infiniteness of space would strike such a fear into
the cosmonaut's heart that he would not be able to detach himself from the
craft at all. There were also fears for his psychological state. "If it
becomes difficult, make decisions depending on the situation," Korolyov
advised the cosmonauts before the blast-off. In the extreme case, the crew
was allowed to "limit themselves to opening the hatch and ... sticking a
hand outside."

    They looked to the Voskhod-2 crew to show particular teamwork and
coordination, complete understanding, trust, and confidence in each other.
So when the duties were assigned, account was taken of not so much of
professional training as of individual psychological qualities.

    Psychologists said that Belyayev had willpower and self-control, which
enabled him to keep his head in the most complex situations, logical
thinking, and was determined when it came to overcoming difficulties and
achieving tasks. Leonov was impetuous, courageous and determined, and was
able to explode into activity on the slightest provocation. These two so
dissimilar men complemented each other perfectly and formed, as the
psychologists said, a "highly compatible group", which was able to
successfully carry out the difficult program envisaging the first walk in
deep space.

    The Americans, too, planned a space walk and hoped to be first. Edward
White, a U.S. air force test pilot, was groomed for the mission.

    News of the Soviet space walk was received in the U.S. as another
challenge. It was an era of open rivalry in space between the two
superpowers, and American experts stepped up their efforts drastically.
White was originally to have only taken a peep out of the craft's hatch. But
following Leonov's flight, the program was altered literally on the fly.

    The upcoming flight with a space walk by an astronaut was announced by
NASA on May 25, 1965, i.e., just over two months after the Belyayev-Leonov
mission, and on June 3 the Gemini-4 spacecraft lifted off, carrying the
astronauts James McDivitt and Edward White.

    Since the Gemini, as distinct from the Voskhod, had no lock chamber, the
astronauts let out the air from the cabin and opened the access hatch. White
pushed himself from the craft and "swam out" into space. He was linked with
the ship by a gilded lifeline 7.6 meters long. The same line was supplying
the oxygen for breathing. White spent 22 minutes outside the ship.

    In the forty years of extra-vehicular activities, the duration of a
space walk has grown from 12 minutes (Alexei Leonov on March 18, 1965) to
nine hours (James Shelton Voss and Susan Jane Helms who left the American
shuttle Discovery on March 11, 2001 to work on the ISS). The first woman to
make a space walk was Svetlana Savitskaya on July 25, 1984. Anatoly Solovyov
has performed the most walks. He is credited with 16, spending a total of 78
hours and 32 minutes in space. Sergei Avdeyev made 10 walks totaling 42
hours. Jerry Ross leads the Americans with nine walks and 58 hours in space.





2005-03-18 23:10     * NO OTHER INTELLIGENT FORMS OF LIFE IN SOLAR SYSTEM,
SAYS COSMONAUT

    MOSCOW, March 18 (RIA Novosti) - Terrestrial is the only intelligent
life throughout the solar system. Alexei Leonov, the world's first to emerge
into the open space, forty years ago, is positive on that point.

    "The people of Earth have a dream to meet someone outside our planet.
Alas, that's an ungrounded desire. I know what I say," he remarked to a news
conference on his sensational venture jubilee.

    "I led an expert commission that was delving into extraordinary events
in space, and we never came on a single reliable instance-I swear."

    The Russian cosmonaut offered newsmen a retrospect of unusual celestial
objects seen on Earth. He regards some as due to weather, others to space
rocket launches. Their exhaust fumes often take bizarre shapes in the upper
atmospheric layers. "Thus, many saw crosses, with huge rings round them,
staying long in the sky, especially on fine cold weather. That was so near
the Plesetsk space center, in the Saratov Region, and in the Baikonur space
center, after Soyuz booster rockets were launched. Many people saw them, and
thought they were UFOs. That was how myth-making started.

    "No one in the whole wide world, for that matter, has ever made a
photograph in which something would clearly show that we could assuredly
qualify as an UFO.

    "Besides, no shots are coming up now that almost all have mobile phones
with a camera built in-just why?" reasoned Leonov.