{"id":336820,"date":"2026-03-19T04:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T04:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/336820\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T04:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T04:18:11","slug":"today-in-history-march-19-astronauts-had-to-battle-for-survival-after-spacecraft-lands-in-deeply-remote-forest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/336820\/","title":{"rendered":"Today in History – March 19: Astronauts had to battle for survival after spacecraft lands in deeply remote forest"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Voskhod 2 was a massive breakthrough in space exploration, with cosmonaut Alexei Leonov<\/a> conducting the first ever spacewalk.<\/p>\n

The spacewalk was a stunning achievement, albeit one that infuriated Leonov’s own father.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Alexei Leonov was the first cosmonaut to exit a spacecraft in space itself. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“What is he doing clambering about outside? Somebody must tell him to get back inside immediately. He must be punished for this,” the elder Leonov said.<\/p>\n

But when he learnt the spacewalk was a planned event he was delighted.<\/p>\n

The spacewalk was a near disaster, with Leonov’s suit inflating so much that he was unable to get back inside the spacecraft.<\/p>\n

Sensing something was wrong, Soviet television cut their live broadcast without explanation.<\/p>\n

Leonov had to open a hole in his spacesuit to deflate it, putting his life at risk in order to save it.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Alexei Leonov was almost unable to re-enter the spacecraft. (AAP)Returning to Earth<\/a>, the cosmonauts realised their automatic guidance system was not working.<\/p>\n

Running on manual control, the two landed deep in the forests of Siberia.<\/p>\n

The pair were in an uninhabitable cold climate, and once they opened the hatch of the spacecraft with its explosive bolts, they were immediately exposed to the elements.<\/p>\n

“We were only too aware that the taiga where we had landed was the habitat of bears<\/a> and wolves,” Leonov later wrote.<\/p>\n

“It was spring, the mating season, when both animals are at their most aggressive.”<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Siberia is one of the most remote places on Earth. (Roscosmos)<\/p>\n

The spacecraft was equipped with a bespoke pistol for such a purpose. Fortunately the two did not have to use it.<\/p>\n

But they had no idea whether their rescue signal had been received.<\/p>\n

They were spotted by a helicopter hours later, but the bulkiness of their spacesuits meant they couldn’t climb the rope ladder dropped down to them.<\/p>\n

Eventually a rescue party reached them on foot, and the exhausted cosmonauts had to ski 9km to a clearing where a helicopter could land.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/The pair were not rescued for days. (Roscosmos)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Voskhod 2 was a massive breakthrough in space exploration, with cosmonaut Alexei Leonov conducting the first ever…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-336820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}