45 years ago on 18-Mar-1965, Aleksei Leonov became the first space walker. Most people should know the name, if not the date.  He had quite the career, but it’s his 12 minutes outside his Vostok spaceship which I most admire.

See, while he was outside his spaceship his protective space suit expanded because of the vacuum; inside his space suit there was air for him to breathe, but outside there was no air at all so his suit expanded like a balloon. This expansion made it impossible for him to reenter his ship because the suit was too stiff to flex. Gene Cernan, in his book “Last Man on the Moon”, described this phenomenon. During Gemini 9, he was to venture outside and do some simple tasks outside the spaceship like use tools to loosen and tighten nuts. After only a few minutes of this kind of activity he was almost exhausted because he was fighting against the suit the whole time.

So Leonov is outside is spaceship and has found that he can’t maneuver himself back into the airlock. What to do? Was he to die alone, far from help and any hope of rescue? No, not this cosmonaut! He did what seems suicidal and foolish to most people: he let the life-giving air out of his suit! This allowed the suit to deflate enough for him to squeeze himself back into his spaceship and turn the air back on. Saved! Seriously, you need to have solid brass balls to even consider doing this.

While he was being groomed by the Soviets to be the first man on the moon, he dodged a few other bullets: he was to have commanded Soyuz 11, the first crew to visit the world’s first Space Station Salyut 1, but was dropped when one of the crew came down with suspected tuberculosis. The Soyuz 11 mission went fine, but the replacement crew of three perished when reentering the earth’s atmosphere.

Sadly, Leonov never did make it to the moon. Leonov went on to command another significant mission: the Apollo Soyuz Test Project, a joint mission between the Soviets and Americans. This mission served to ease tensions in the space race.

Leonov is an artist, a pilot and warrior, an author, and twice Hero of the Soviet Union. And someone I wish I could hang around to soak up some of his awesomeness.