Pavel I. Belyayev

Pavel I. Belyayev (1925-1970), Soviet cosmonaut. He commanded the space mission that included the first space walk.

Belyayev was born in Chelishchëvo in northwestern Russia, then part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). In 1960 he was selected as one of the USSR’s first cosmonauts. When the space program began, he had the highest military seniority of any of the cosmonauts, and he served as their first commander, supervising and training new groups of cosmonauts. Injuries received during training exercises prevented him from flying on the early space missions, but in March 1965, Belyayev commanded the Voskhod 2 mission.

The 26-hour Voskhod 2 mission is best known as the first time a human stepped out of a spaceship and walked in space. As mission pilot Alexei Leonov floated out of the airlock, Belyayev made the announcement, “Man has stepped out into open space!” Attached to the airlock by a cable, Leonov floated in space for more than ten minutes. At the end of the Voskhod mission, the landing capsule’s automatic guidance controls failed to function, forcing Belyayev to pilot the capsule manually. He and Leonov landed 1000 km (600 mi) off course and had to spend two days and a cold night near the Ural Mountains before being rescued.

Following the Voskhod 2 mission, Belyayev returned to supervising and training cosmonauts. In 1967 he became manager of the lunar training group as he prepared for the Zond 7 lunar mission, which was scheduled to take off just three weeks before the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) launched its Apollo 8 mission in the United States. Technical problems grounded Belyayev’s mission, which would have made him the first person to orbit the moon. He never flew in space again.