When the term space travel is mentioned, most people would remember the first man to walk on moon but it was made possible by another man who was the first to walk in space and he who barely missed the chance to be on moon.
The space was populated by every country but Russia, the then Soviet Union had the honor of being the first for many. They launched the first Sputnik, space satellite, Yuri Gagarin, the first human to be in space, Valentina Tereshkova, the woman and Laika, a dog.
However, Alexei Leonov had the honor of taking the first step into space on March 18, 1965 and it has been half a century since he took another giant leap for mankind, before Neil Armstrong did. "As the air ducts were opened, the vacuum found in the space rapidly reached out to grip me like a claw," said Leonov in an interview to TIME magazine. The then astronaut is now 80 years old and had an exclusive photo shoot with the magazine on an important day, March 18 when he went into space.
"Even though, the act was rehearsed innumerable times on Earth, experiencing it in person is a critical moment. But, when I actually walked into space wearing the suit, there was nothing else except a great level than one could ever imagine. All that was surrounding me is the sound of my heartbeat and the air within the helmet. There's no other way to describe how a human would feel in this abyss," said Leonov.
However, the astronaut confirms that the last moments of the space-walk was filled with anxiety. The space suit was deformed because there were no atmospheric pressure and Leonov had to deprive the suit of oxygen to reach the shuttle, hit in with his head first before he hauled himself completely inside the airlock vent.
Within 12 minutes of walking in space, Leonov had lost six kilos because of the drastic situations he faced outside of the shuttle. The return back to Earth wasn't easy either as the automatic guidance system got disabled and the crew had to manually guide the spacecraft back into the planet. They finally landed but the location was 2,000 kilometers away from the proposed destination, adds the Guardian.