March 18, 1965 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome it was launched spacecraft "Voskhod-2" with a crew of commander Pavel Ivanovich Belyaev and co-pilot Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov. Shortly after the release of the ship into orbit (the second coil) Alexei Leonov in the suit for the first time in the world exited from the spaceship in the open space and 12 minutes 9 seconds was "floating" near the spaceship, connected with him a five-meter tether. After the flight of Yuri Gagarin, it was a completely new step in human space exploration.
March 18, 2015, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the exit of the first man into open space, in the State Polytechnic Museum at NTUU "KPI" a round table was held, which was attended by veterans of Baikonur, Plesetsk and Kapustin Yar, teachers and students of NTUU " KPI ", the students of the Polytechnic Lyceum. At the round table there were reports of the veterans of Baikonur cosmodrome, who in the 60 years of the twentieth century were on duty at the launch site and provided the launch of manned spacecraft. A special atmosphere of the meeting was created by the fact that it took place near the real spacecraft of Belyaev and Leonov, and that was in space and landed.
Meeting was chaired by Head of the Department of Aviation and Astronautics SPM, Chairman of the Central Board of Veterans Baikonur Cosmodrome in Ukraine retired lieutenant colonel O.S.Boltenko. He expressed gratitude to the veterans who took part in the meeting and gave a brief report on the development of space in the 1960s.
Further, the roundtable participants watched a 15-minute documentary about the historic flight O.A.Leonov, particularly impressive footage of a man in a spacesuit "floats" in the space next to the spacecraft, which travels at a speed of 8 kilometers per second at a distance about 250 kilometers from the surface of the globe. The feeling of the cosmonaut one can imagine by the fact, that his pulse rate was 147-162 beats per minute. And that's perfectly healthy, well-trained fighter pilot, held almost one and half year long special training for this flight! Another detail. In Spacesuit the temperature was maintained at 18 degrees, and on its surface it was 150 ° on the illuminated side, and minus 180C - in the shade.
Veteran Baikonur Cosmodrome A.I.Stegny made a presentation on how it was created the design of the spacecraft "Voskhod-2" and how it was carried out the selection of the crew. In particular, on the recommendations of psychologists, lively and agile Leonov and quite Belyaev complemented each other. Retired lieutenant colonel V.O.Melanich in 1965 was the chief of refueling team, which took part in the preparation of the spacecraft "Voskhod-2" for the start. He talked about the features of filling the launcher and spacecraft "Voskhod-2" and technical problems, which then had to be solved. Retired Colonel V.M.Shinkarenko told about emergency situations during the exit Leonov in open space, and when returning to the ship's orbit to the ground. The first of these occurred during the Return of cosmonauts in the ship. In the open space spacesuit inflated so that the astronaut was able to get into the lock only when the released portion of the air from the suit. Later, when the astronauts were preparing to descend from orbit, the automation system failed, and landing had to be carried out in manual mode. Therefore, the ship landed far from the planned landing area - in snow-covered taiga - 180 kilometers north of the city of Perm and the astronauts had to wait for rescuers one day, and then a few kilometers to go skiing to the helicopter.
In 1975, July 15-21, A.A.Leonov together with V.M.Kubasov made his second space flight - as commander of spacecraft "Soyuz-19" in the program "Soyuz-Apollo" when he first took docking in orbit spacecraft USSR and the USA. The participant of the launch of the spacecraft "Soyuz-19" V.P.Malyar told about this flight.
The director of SDM N.V.Pisarevska summed up the roundtable. She, in particular, recalled that five years ago at the invitation of the museum A.A.Leonov visited NTUU"KPI", met with teachers and students, visited our museum, presented it with his dress uniform and the control knob on the spaceship " Voskhod-2 ". A few museums in the world can be proud that they have been visited the first astronauts, and there are unique exhibits.
We have become accustomed to the fact that modern astronauts, in particular in the International Space Station, during the various assembly operations are in the open space within a few hours. But the first step towards this was done by A.A.Leonov.