| The history of manned space flight: Initially, it was suggested to “experiment the depressurization of a container with animals in a spacesuit”. After depressurization, the animal will be taken out (or goes out on its own) from a spaceship with a subsequent return back into the spaceship and landing along with the spaceship”. But the suggestion was turned down not only due to the fact that the experiment with an animal would have required the designing of a special spacesuit and other complex equipment. Animals going out into open space would not have provided an answer to the main problem: can a human being get accustomed and move in such an unusual situation and an animal cannot be warned about what is in store and it cannot later on narrate about its impressions and feelings.
The project team of the designer bureau was assigned a task – to develop the technical facilities, which ensure the exit of human beings from the spaceship “Voskhod”. For this, specialists analyzed several exit versions. Of all the suggested versions, the simplest was to use the hatch, which served as an entrance for the crew into the spaceship. But air loss, in this case, would be very high and it would require too many devices in the cabin of the spaceship to be air tight.
As a result of working out on several technical decisions, preference was given to the version with an airlock chamber. The airlock chamber is a small space in the spaceship, isolated from all sides. The completely dressed up astronaut in a spacesuit would wait temporarily till the entire ambient air is released gradually and after which, the hatch is opened to the outside. Returning back into the spaceship takes place in reverse order- the airlock chamber, which is closed from outside and inside, is filled with air. After which, the internal hatch is opened and the astronaut appears inside the spaceship.
The airlock chamber itself was pressurized and located outside the hard chassis of the spaceship. During exit into orbit in a folded state, the airlock chamber occurs to be under the fairing of the spaceship. After exit into space before launch onto earth, the main portion of it was shot-off and the spaceship entered the dense beds of the atmosphere almost in usual form – having a small outgrowth in the area of the inlet hatch. Tests, carried out earlier on “Cosmos-110” showed that the ballistics of the recovery capsule did not get damaged due to the residues of the airlock chamber. If the “shooting-off” of the airlock chamber did not occur due to some reason, then the crew had to get into the spacesuit, depressurize the ship and cut the airlock chamber, protruding into the hatch and obstructing the descent down to Earth.
Simultaneously with the modernization of the spaceship “Voskhod”, two crews started preparations for flight. The crews consisted of Aleksey Leonov with Pavel Belyaev and their substitutes – Victor Gorbatko and Evgeny Khrunov. Leonov recalled “At the end of 1963, we had been experimental – the design bureau of Korolev, where the spaceships were constructed and we studied space technology. We were received by Sergey Pavlovich, he took us to the shop and showed us the prototype of the spaceship “
Voskhod”, which was equipped with some strange chamber. When noticing our astonishment, he said that it was the airlock chamber for the exit into open space. Sergey Pavlovich proposed that I should get into the spacesuit and carry out the experiment. After 2-hrs of works, during which I had to do some fairly hard work, I expressed my considerations to Korolev. I remember to have said that the task can be carried out but it is necessary that everything should be taken care of”.
During the training sessions, to keep their bodies in good shape, astronauts had to do a special set of physical exercises, jump from a certain height into water, train on a trampoline, parachute jump and undergo lessons on a special device – the freely revolving “Zhukovsk’s bench”. Working on the training equipment, simulating the reference-free space, should help the astronauts to feel confident in open space.
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Guy Laliberte, the 50-year-old founder of Cirque du Soleil, paid $35 million to become the world's seventh space tourist. On October 2, Laliberte maneuvered to a smooth docking with the International Space Station where he will clown around for nine days. The $35 million price tag was not a problem as the circus tycoon is worth $2.5 billion. He is now dubbed the "space clown." Laliberte said he plans to tickle the crew of the International Space Station and has surprises planned for them.
