Voskhod 2
OKB-1 | ||
COSPAR ID | 1965-022A | |
---|---|---|
SATCAT no. | 1274 | |
Mission duration | 1 day, 2 hours, 2 minutes, 17 seconds | |
Orbits completed | 17 | |
Spacecraft properties | ||
Spacecraft | OKB-1 | |
Launch mass | 5,682 kilograms (12,527 lb) | |
Crew | ||
Crew size | 2 | |
Members | EVA duration | 12 minutes, 9 seconds |
Start of mission | ||
Launch date | 18 March 1965, 07:00:00 UTC | |
Rocket | Voskhod 11A57 | |
Launch site | Baikonur 1/5[2] | |
End of mission | ||
Landing date | 19 March 1965, 09:02:17 UTC | |
Landing site | 59°34′N 55°28′E / 59.567°N 55.467°E | |
Orbital parameters | ||
Reference system | Geocentric | |
Regime | Low Earth | |
Perigee altitude | 167 kilometres (104 mi) | |
Apogee altitude | 475 kilometres (295 mi) | |
Inclination | 64.8° | |
Period | 90.9 minutes | |
Epoch | 18 March 1965 | |
|
Voskhod 2 (
Crew
Position | Cosmonaut | |
---|---|---|
Commander | Pavel Belyayev Only spaceflight | |
Pilot | Alexei Leonov First spaceflight |
Backup crew
Position | Cosmonaut | |
---|---|---|
Commander | Dmitri Zaikin
| |
Pilot | Yevgeny Khrunov |
Reserve crew
Position | Cosmonaut | |
---|---|---|
Commander | Viktor Gorbatko | |
Pilot | Pyotr Kolodin |
Mission parameters
- Mass: 5,682 kg (12,527 lb)
- Apogee: 475 km (295 mi)
- Perigee: 167 km (104 mi)
- Inclination: 64.8°
- Period: 90.9 min
Space walk
- Leonov – EVA – 18 March 1965
- 08:28:13 GMT: The Voskhod 2 airlock is depressurised by Leonov.
- 08:32:54 GMT: Leonov opens the Voskhod 2 airlock hatch.
- 08:34:51 GMT: EVA start – Leonov leaves airlock.
- 08:47:00 GMT: EVA end – Leonov reenters airlock.
- 08:48:40 GMT: Hatch on the airlock is closed and secured by Leonov.
- 08:51:54 GMT: Leonov begins to repressurise the airlock.
- Duration: 12 minutes 9 seconds
Mission highlights
Liftoff took place at 07:00 GMT on 18 March 1965. As with Voskhod 1, a launch abort was not possible during the first few minutes, until the payload shroud jettisoned around the 2+1⁄2-minute mark.
The Voskhod 3KD spacecraft had an inflatable airlock extended in orbit.[5] Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov donned a Berkut spacesuit and left the spacecraft while the other cosmonaut of the two-man crew, Pavel Belyayev, remained inside. Leonov began his spacewalk 90 minutes into the mission at the end of the first orbit. Cosmonaut Leonov's spacewalk lasted 12 minutes and 9 seconds (08:34:51–08:47:00 GMT), beginning over north-central Africa (northern Sudan/southern Egypt), and ending over eastern Siberia.
The Voskhod 2 spacecraft was a Vostok spacecraft with a backup, solid fuel
Though Leonov was able to complete his spacewalk successfully, both that task and the overall mission were plagued with problems. Leonov's only tasks were to attach a camera to the end of the airlock to record his spacewalk and to photograph the spacecraft. He managed to attach the camera without any problem. However, when he tried to use the still camera on his chest, the suit had ballooned and he was unable to reach down to the shutter switch on his leg.
The delay of 46 seconds caused the spacecraft to land 386 km (240 mi) from the intended landing zone, in the inhospitable forests of
General Nikolai Kamanin's diary later gave the landing location of the Voskhod 2, about 75 kilometres (47 miles) from Perm in the Ural mountains in heavy forest at 59°34′N 55°28′E / 59.567°N 55.467°E on 19 March 1965 09:02 GMT. Initially, there was some confusion and it was believed that Voskhod 2 landed not far from Shchuchin (about 30 kilometres or 19 miles south-west of Bereznikov, north of Perm), but no indication was received from the spacecraft.[11] Apparently a commander of one of the search helicopters reported finding Voskhod 2, "On the forest road between the villages of Sorokovaya and Shchuchino, about 30 kilometers southwest of the town of Berezniki, I see the red parachute and the two cosmonauts. There is deep snow all around..."[9]
The capsule is currently on display at the
Spacewalk
On reaching orbit in Voskhod 2, Leonov and Belyayev attached the EVA backpack to Leonov's Berkut ("Golden Eagle") space suit, a modified Vostok Sokol-1 intravehicular (IV) suit. The white metal EVA backpack provided 45 minutes of oxygen for breathing and cooling. Oxygen vented through a relief valve into space, carrying away heat, moisture, and exhaled carbon dioxide. The space suit pressure could be set at either 40.6 kPa (5.89 psi) or 27.40 kPa (3.974 psi).[12]
Belyayev then deployed and pressurised the Volga inflatable airlock. The airlock was necessary for two reasons: first, the capsule's
The fabric airlock tube was made rigid by about 40 airbooms, clustered as three independent groups. Two groups sufficed for deployment. The airbooms needed seven minutes to fully inflate. Four spherical tanks held sufficient oxygen to inflate the airbooms and pressurise the airlock. Two lights lit the airlock interior, and three 16mm cameras — two in the airlock, one outside on a boom-mounted to the upper ring — recorded the historic first spacewalk.[14]
Belyayev controlled the airlock from inside Voskhod 2, but a set of backup controls for Leonov was suspended on bungee cords inside the airlock. Leonov entered the Volga, then Belyayev sealed Voskhod 2 behind him and depressurised the airlock. Leonov opened Volga's outer hatch and pushed out to the end of his 5.35 m (17.6 ft) umbilicus. He later said the umbilicus gave him tight control of his movements — an observation purportedly belied by subsequent American spacewalk experience. Leonov reported looking down and seeing from the
After Leonov returned to his couch, Belyayev fired pyrotechnic bolts to discard the Volga.
The government news agency,
Later accounts report Cosmonaut Leonov violated procedure by entering the airlock head-first, then became stuck sideways when he turned to close the outer hatch, forcing him to flirt with decompression sickness (the "bends") by lowering the suit pressure so he could bend to free himself. Leonov said that he had a suicide pill to swallow had he been unable to re-enter the Voskhod 2, and Belyayev been forced to abandon him in orbit.[12]
Doctors reported that Leonov nearly suffered heatstroke — his core body temperature increased by 1.8 °C (3.2 °F) in 20 minutes; Leonov said he was up to his knees in sweat, which sloshed in the suit. In an interview published in the Soviet Military Review in 1980, Leonov downplayed his difficulties, saying that "building manned orbital stations and exploring the Universe are inseparably linked with man's activity in open space. There is no end of work in this field".
Crew recovery
The capsule touched down on land in the Perm region of Russia.[16] It missed the intended landing site by approximately 386 kilometres (240 mi).[5] This was due to a failure in the navigation system which caused the automated braking system to fail. To correct this problem as much as possible the crew manually controlled the braking system to deorbit and land the capsule. Once the capsule touched down and the crew was able to set foot back on soil the crew recovery had just begun.[17]
Given that the capsule landed in a rural area with a tracking system that had an accuracy of 50-70 kilometers, the landing site was not immediately known. It was even admitted by General Nikolai Kamanin that officials were unaware of the successful landing for multiple hours after touch down. Approximately 4 hours after the capsule touched down a helicopter spotted the capsule and crew.[18] The location in which the capsule touched down was too dense for a helicopter to land and recover the crew. Leonov and Belyayev could have likely been recovered by a helicopter with the use of a rope and ladder or rescue basket but Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev strictly prohibited cosmonauts to be rescued with those methods.[why?] This resulted in Leonov and Belyayev spending a total of 3 days, two nights, in the forest before finally being recovered. The cosmonauts did come partially equipped for this situation taking a survival kit which included a knife and a pistol.[19] Also, the two cosmonauts had experience that would aid them in this situation: Belyayev grew up in Chelishchevo with the dream of becoming a hunter, while Leonov had spent time in the wilderness alone as an artistic outlet. Throughout the nights the temperature would drop to −30 °C (−22 °F).[19] During this time helicopters dropped supplies for the cosmonauts including warm clothes, boots, water containers, and more. Helicopters also dropped doctors and technicians close to the landing site so they could trek to the landing site and support the cosmonauts. Others were also dropped by helicopters to start clearing a landing pad that was closer to the capsule. With more resources and supplies after their first night the landing site was more sustainable. This included a fire, a makeshift log cabin and they were even brought cheese, sausage, and bread for supper.[20] Finally, after spending two cold nights in a dense forest, Leonov and Belyayev were able to ski 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) with the help of some rescuers to reach the helicopters landing site. The cosmonauts were then flown to Perm and ultimately to Baikonur where they would have their first debriefing about the mission.[17]
Currently, the location at which Voskhod 2 touched down is marked by a plaque with a 400-meter-long wooden walkway to the destination. The path took approximately two weeks to complete by volunteers.[16]
In popular culture
- In 2015, the mission was depicted in the "Space" episode of Comedy Central's Drunk History, created by Derek Waters. Blake Anderson and Adam DeVine played Leonov and Belyayev.
- The mission is depicted in the 2017 Russian film The Age of Pioneers (Russian: Время первых, romanized: Vremya Pervykh), also known as Spacewalk, starring Yevgeny Mironov as Alexei Leonov and Konstantin Khabensky as Pavel Belyayev.
- In the pilot episode of the alternate history series For All Mankind, Voskhod 2 is the name given to the first crewed lunar landing, with Leonov walking on the Moon a few weeks before Apollo 11arrives.
- This mission is the subject of the song "EVA" from the 2015 album The Race for Space by British alternative band Public Service Broadcasting.
- The inflatable airlock inspired a similar inflatable airlock in the space simulation game Kerbal Space Program.
See also
- List of spacewalks
- Voskhod Spacecraft "Globus" IMP navigation instrument
References
- ISBN 0-7917-0188-3.
- ^ "Baikonur LC1". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 15 April 2009. Retrieved 4 March 2009.
- ISBN 978-0387848242. Archivedfrom the original on 18 March 2023. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
- ^ Grayzeck, Dr. Edwin J. "Voskhod 2". nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov. National Space Science Data Center. Archived from the original on 14 May 2021. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
- ^ a b c "Spaceflight mission report: Voskhod 2". www.spacefacts.de. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
- ISBN 978-1852333911. Archivedfrom the original on 18 March 2023. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
- ^ a b c Siddiqi, Asif A. Challenge To Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945–1974. NASA. Archived from the original on 8 October 2006. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
- ^ a b c Leonov, Alexei (1 January 2005). "The Nightmare of Voskhod 2". Air & Space. p. 5. Archived from the original on 28 November 2012. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ ISBN 978-1852333911. Archivedfrom the original on 18 March 2023. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
- ^ Grahn, Sven. "The Voskhod 2 mission revisited". SvenGrahn.pp.se. Sven Grahn. Archived from the original on 11 March 2007. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
- ^ Wade, Mark. "Kamanin Diaries - 1965 March 19 - Landing of Voskhod 2". Astronautix.com. Mark Wade Astronautix.com. Archived from the original on 17 August 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
- ^ a b Portree, David S. F.; Robert C. Treviño (October 1997). "Walking to Olympus: An EVA Chronology" (PDF). Monographs in Aerospace History Series #7. NASA History Office. pp. 15–16. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 December 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2008.
- ISBN 978-1852333911. Archivedfrom the original on 18 March 2023. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
- ISBN 978-1852333911. Archivedfrom the original on 18 March 2023. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
- ISBN 978-1852333911. Archivedfrom the original on 18 March 2023. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
- ^ a b Hurst, Luke (1 September 2020). "Volunteers build path to site of cosmonaut landing in Russian forest". euronews. Archived from the original on 2 May 2021. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
- ^ a b "Voskhod-2 lands in the wild". www.russianspaceweb.com. Archived from the original on 14 May 2021. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
- ^ "Voskhod 2 Forest Landing Site Now Accessible to Visitors". The Vintage News. 22 October 2020. Archived from the original on 2 May 2021. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
- ^ a b "Feoktistov's Flight Suit". airandspace.si.edu. Archived from the original on 2 May 2021. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
- ^ DNews. "Cosmonauts Faced Cold, Snow After Dicey Landing". Seeker. Archived from the original on 2 May 2021. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
External links
- Video of Voskod 2 mission (in Russian)
- The Voskhod 2 mission revisited