Pavel Ivanovich Belyayev (Russian: Павел Иванович Беляев; 26 June 1925 – 10 January 1970), was a Soviet fighter pilot with extensive experience in piloting different types of aircraft. He was the first commander of the cosmonaut corps and the cosmonaut who commanded the historic Voskhod 2 mission which saw the first man walk in space in 1965.
Voskhod 2 carrying Voskhod 3KD spacecraft carried two cosmonauts, Pavel Belyayev & Alexey Leonov, to orbit. The craft was equipped with an inflatable airlock in order to conduct the first ever spacewalk. Alexey Leonov became the first person to do so by performing a 12 minute spacewalk. The mission lasted 1 day, 2 hours, 2 minutes & 17 seconds completing a total of 17 orbits around Earth. The mission had many issues, for example during his spacewalk his spacesuit ballooned up to a point where his suit became stiff. In order to move his limbs again and re-enter the airlock he had to bleed off some of the suit's pressure. After re-entering the capsule,the crew had trouble sealing the hatch, during re-entry the orbital module did not properly disconnect from the landing module causing the spacecraft to spin wildly until turbulence caused them to separate at around 100 km and the automatic landing system failed and the crew had to rely on the manual backup. Earlier troubles meant that spacecraft landed 386 km away from their targeted landing zome in the forests of Upper Kama Upland.
Low Earth OrbitThe Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities, commonly known as Roscosmos, is the governmental body responsible for the space science program of the Russian Federation and general aerospace research. Soyuz has many launch locations the Russian sites are Baikonur, Plesetsk and Vostochny however Ariane also purchases the vehicle and launches it from French Guiana.