In 1965, Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov stepped outside Voskhod 2 for the first spacewalk in history, and his suit ballooned so badly in vacuum that he had to bleed oxygen through a valve to fit back inside before orbital darkness

In 1965, Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov stepped outside Voskhod 2 for the first spacewalk in history, and his suit ballooned so badly in vacuum that he had to bleed oxygen through a valve to fit back inside before orbital darkness

On 18 March 1965, a 30-year-old Soviet Air Force pilot named Alexei Leonov opened the hatch of an inflatable airlock on Voskhod 2 and became the first human being to float free in space. According to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, he stayed outside for just over 12 minutes. Then the suit around him began to become the problem. In vacuum, Leonov’s Berkut suit stiffened and ballooned. The Smithsonian says he had to vent air from th…