Voskhod 2

USSR

International Flight nº: 14

Earth orbit Flight nº: 12

USSR launch Flight nº: 8

Launch, orbit & landing data:

Designation	01274 / 65022A
Launch date - time	18 Mar 1965 - 07:00 UT
Launch site	Baikonur, LC1
Launch vehicle	Voskhod 11A57 (s/n°: R15000-05)
Payload	Voskhod 3KD s/n 4
Size (m)	6 long? - 2.44 dia
Mass (kg)	5682 kg
Flight Crew	Belyayev, Pavel (CDR) Leonov, Aleksei (FE)
Call Sign	Almaz (Diamond )
Backup crew	Zaikin D., Khrunov E.
Earth orbit on Mar 18.7:
- Perigee / Apogee	167 x 475 km
- Eccentricity	0.023
- Inclination	64.79°
- Period	90.93 min
Landing date - time	19 Mar 1965 - 09:02:17 UT
Landing location	180 km NW of Perm (Russia) 59°34' N, 55°28' E
Flight Duration (d:hr:min)	1d 02h 02min
Nbr orbits	18
Distance (km)	717.3 thousand
EVA Duration	24 min

Summary: First EVA in the world (Alexey Leonov; total duration 20m.; outside duration 12m.), distance till 5 meters. Fault of orientation system, manual orientation before entry ignition. Landing in out-of-the-way snow-covered taiga. Difficulties with evacuation of the crew.

Crew

Nr.	Surname	Given name	Job	Duration	Orbits
1	Belyayev	Pavel Ivanovich	Commander	1d 02h 02m	18
2	Leonov	Aleksei Arkhipovich	Flight engineer	1d 02h 02m	18

Mission details:

Voskhod 2 EVA. - Credit: RKK Energia.

Leonov first EVA. - Credit: RKK Energia.

First spacewalk. This mission was the original raison of the Voskhod series, with the original name 'Advance'. Almost ended in disaster when Leonov was unable to reenter airlock due to stiffness of spacesuit. After Leonov finally managed to get back into the spacecraft, the primary hatch would not seal completely. The environmental control system compensated by flooding the cabin with oxygen, creating a serious fire hazard in a craft only qualified for sea level nitrogen-oxygen gas mixes (Cosmonaut Bondarenko had burned to death in a ground accident in such circumstances, preceding the Apollo 204 disaster by many years).
On reentry primary retrorockets failed. Manually controlled retrofire one orbit later with backup solid rocket retropack on nose of spacecraft (which did not exist on Vostok). Service module failed to separate completely, leading to wild gyrations of joined reentry sphere - service module before connecting wires burned through. Landed in Ural mountains at 59:34 N 55:28 E (180 km northeast of Perm) on March 19, 1965 9:02 GMT. Crew spent night in woods, surrounded by wolves, before being located. Recovery crew had to chop down trees to clear a landing zone for helicopter recovery of crew and capsule
Although trumpeted to the world as a triumph (with suspect TV pictures and film of the spacewalk which did not match), this was the swan song of the Soviet space program and for Korolev. Follow-on Voskhod missions were cancelled as too dangerous, and America took the lead with Gemini 4 and subsequent missions taking the records for duration, rendezvous and docking, and spacewalking.

TIMELINE

Date	Time (UT)	Explanation
Mar 18, 1965	07:00:00	lift-off spacecraft "Voskhod-2" (crew: Belyaev, Leonov )
Mar 18, 1965	08:28:13	depressurization of EVA airlock (Leonov );spacecraft "Voskhod-2"
Mar 18, 1965	08:32:54	hatch of EVA airlock opened (Leonov );spacecraft "Voskhod-2"
Mar 18, 1965	08:34:51	beginning of EVA (Leonov );spacecraft "Voskhod-2"
Mar 18, 1965	08:47:00	ingress completed, ending of EVA (Leonov ), duration 0:12; spacecraft "Voskhod-2"
Mar 18, 1965	08:48:40	hatch of EVA airlock closed and locked (Leonov );spacecraft "Voskhod-2"
Mar 18, 1965	08:51:54	beginning of repressurization of EVA airlock Leonov );spacecraft "Voskhod-2"
Mar 19, 1965	08:36:27	deorbit burn of spacecraft "Voskhod-2" (crew: Belyaev, Leonov )
Mar 19, 1965	09:02:17	landing of spacecraft "Voskhod-2" (crew: Belyaev, Leonov )

Astrophilately covers:

Launch cancel Odessa

FDC Moscou, signed by Belyayev & Leonov.

Ref.: #1, #2, #3(SD1965), #7, #8, #16, #21, #206 - update: 27.11.18

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