“Defying Gravity: The Untold Secrets Behind the Space Jetpack Revolution”
The Voskhod 2 launched on March 18, 1965. In addition to Leonov, Pavel Belyayev was on board to man the ship while Leonov was giving the universe the finger by daring to exist in its void. It was the first trip into space for both of the crew members.
And so it was that once in orbit, Leonov strapped on an EVA backpack to his spacesuit that provided him with 45 minutes of oxygen and would help cool him a bit while heat, moisture, and carbon dioxide would be vented into space via a relief valve.
Belyayev then pressurized the inflatable airlock, which was a process that took seven minutes. Everything went smoothly at first and Leonov spent a total of 12 minutes and 9 seconds out on his space walk. He described the experience by saying he felt “like a seagull with its wings outstretched, soaring high above the Earth.”
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and he needed to get back inside the spacecraft before he ran out of air. But, as alluded to earlier, getting back inside proved to be a problem. He maneuvered himself back to the airlock, but then realized that his suit had bloated to a significant degree making it, at least in his current state, impossible to get back in.
Leonov thought about contacting mission control about his predicament, but decided not to. He had an idea of what to do, albeit extremely risky, and he was the only one who could do anything about the situation anyway, and didn’t want to worry the people on the ground.
As to what he decided to try, it was wriggling in head-first while slowly bleeding off the oxygen in his suit. He states of this,
