“Defying Gravity: The Untold Secrets Behind the Space Jetpack Revolution”
I knew I might be risking oxygen starvation, but I had no choice. If I did not reenter the craft, within the next 40 minutes my life support would be spent anyway.
Unfortunately, as he released oxygen and exerted himself, his suit began to heat up dangerously with his core body temperature rising 3.2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.8 degrees Celsius), as he slowly clambered into the airlock inch by inch.
Matters were not markedly improved once inside, however because he needed to curl his body around to close the hatch. The only way to do that he found was let yet more oxygen out of his suit and lower the pressure further… which he eventually accomplished and got the hatch closed.
At last with the hatch sealed, Belyayev was able to pressurize the airlock again and Leonov made it back inside the spacecraft.
On the ground, people had watched the very first spacewalk, though Leonov’s struggle to get back inside the spacecraft wasn’t televised. At the first sign of trouble, the transmissions shown on televisions on Earth “randomly” stopped with no explanation, with most assuming technical difficulties with the broadcast feed.
Leonov was thankful they didn’t show his re-enty, stating, “My family was therefore spared the anxiety they would have had to endure had they known how close I came to being stranded in space.”
Unfortunately, this was only the start of the problems. Just five minutes before they were scheduled to begin re-entry, the crewmen discovered that the automatic guidance system wasn’t functioning. They would have to land the spacecraft manually and were also dangerously low on fuel to maneuver to boot.
