Today marks the 49th anniversary of the first space walk! Russian cosmonaut Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov spent 12 minutes and 9 seconds outside the space capsule. The date was 18th March 1965.

He almost didn’t make it back inside the capsule. Due to the lack of atmospheric pressure his space suit had bloated so much that he wasn’t able to fit in through the air lock. He opened a valve to release some of the pressure and slowly made his way back into the capsule.

Even though his space walk was seen by many people back on earth, this heart-stopping moment was thankfully not shown. He later said that he was glad of this because his family was watching.