THE unofficial NASA PAGES

Early Spacewalks

Alexei Leonov's Voskhod 2 capsule carried two men, like Gemini, but the Soviets constructed an inflatable airlock for Leonov's spacewalk on March 18, 1965. There were tense moments when Leonov found his spacesuit too rigid to reenter the airlock. Leonov bled air out of his suit, but was barely able to return. Later, a rocket malfunction forced Leonov and his crewmate to land in mountains and deep snow, with wolves growling and scratching at Voskhod's partly open hatch.

Gemini 4 (GT-4) was launched aboard a Titan II rocket on June 3, 1965 carrying astronauts James McDivitt and Ed White into earth orbit. The flight lasted 4 days and included an historic space walk by Ed White, the first by an American.