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Wikipedia dicit:

Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmental support. EVA includes spacewalks and lunar or planetary surface exploration (commonly known from 1969 to 1972 as moonwalks). In a stand-up EVA (SEVA), an astronaut stands through an open hatch but does not fully leave the spacecraft. EVAs have been conducted by the Soviet Union/Russia, the United States, Canada, the European Space Agency and China.

On March 18, 1965, Alexei Leonov became the first human to perform a spacewalk, exiting the Voskhod 2 capsule for 12 minutes and 9 seconds. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to perform a moonwalk, outside his lunar lander on Apollo 11 for 2 hours and 31 minutes. In 1984, Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to perform a spacewalk, conducting EVA outside the Salyut 7 space station for 3 hours and 35 minutes. On the last three Moon missions, astronauts also performed deep-space EVAs on the return to Earth, to retrieve film canisters from the outside of the spacecraft. American Astronauts Pete Conrad, Joseph Kerwin, and Paul Weitz also used EVA in 1973 to repair launch damage to Skylab, the United States’ first space station.

EVAs may be either tethered (the astronaut is connected to the spacecraft; oxygen and electrical power can be supplied through an umbilical cable; no propulsion is needed to return to the spacecraft), or untethered. Untethered spacewalks were only performed on three missions in 1984 using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), and on a flight test in 1994 of the Simplified Aid For EVA Rescue (SAFER), a safety device worn on tethered U.S. EVAs.

Video credit: SpaceX

Wikipedia dicit:

Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut or cosmonaut outside a spacecraft beyond the Earth’s appreciable atmosphere. The term most commonly applies to a spacewalk made outside a craft orbiting Earth (such as the International Space Station). On March 18, 1965, Alexei Leonov became the first human to perform a spacewalk, exiting the capsule during the Voskhod 2 mission for 12 minutes and 9 seconds. The term also applied to lunar surface exploration (commonly known as moonwalks) performed by six pairs of American astronauts in the Apollo program from 1969 to 1972. On July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to perform a moonwalk, outside his lunar lander on Apollo 11 for 2 hours and 31 minutes. On the last three Moon missions astronauts also performed deep-space EVAs on the return to Earth, to retrieve film canisters from the outside of the spacecraft. Astronauts Pete Conrad, Joseph Kerwin, and Paul Weitz also used EVA in 1973 to repair launch damage to Skylab, the United States’ first space station.

A “Stand-up” EVA (SEVA) is when an astronaut does not fully leave a spacecraft, but is completely reliant on the spacesuit for environmental support. Its name derives from the astronaut “standing up” in the open hatch, usually to record or assist a spacewalking astronaut.

EVAs may be either tethered (the astronaut is connected to the spacecraft; oxygen and electrical power can be supplied through an umbilical cable; no propulsion is needed to return to the spacecraft), or untethered. Untethered spacewalks were only performed on three missions in 1984 using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), and on a flight test in 1994 of the Simplified Aid For EVA Rescue (SAFER), a safety device worn on tethered U.S. EVAs.

Video Credit: NASA Johnson

Updated tasks on U.S. EVA 53.

Video Credit: NASA

ESA dixit:

“Known to the crew as an EVA (extravehicular activity), each spacewalk provides a valuable opportunity to carry out repairs, test new equipment and even perform science experiments beyond the confines of a spacecraft. Exiting the International Space Station however, brings heightened risk and activities are planned down to the minute. In this clip, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst and NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor help NASA astronauts Feustel and Ricky Arnold prepare to step out into space for EVA 51. ”

Credits Video: ESA

Credits: NASA

Forty years ago, on January 16, 1969, two Russian spacecraft (Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5) carried out the first docking between two manned spacecraft and transfer of crew between the craft.

The Soyuz 4/5 mission was a critical milestone for the future of manned space missions, the rendezvous and docking of manned spacecraft being essential for the development of space stations.

Soyuz 4 was launched on January 14, 1969, with cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov on board. Soyuz 5 was launched one day later. Soyuz 5 had three cosmonauts on board: Boris Volynov, Alexei Yeliseyev, and Yevgeny Khrunov. During the mission, Soyuz 5 acted as the passive ship, while Soyuz 4 was the active chaser craft.

The two spacecraft docked at 0820 UT over the Soviet territory. The docking mechanism did not connect the pressurized modules of the Soyuz spacecraft and two of the cosmonauts on board Soyuz 5, Yevgeny Khrunov and Alexei Yeliseyev, performed EVAs in order to transfer to Soyuz 4.

Credits: NASA/R.F.Gibbons

Soyuz 4 and 5 undocked after three hours and thirty-five minutes.

Soyuz 4 fired its retro-rockets on January 17 and landed somewhere near Karaganda, in Kazakhstan.

Soyuz 5 had an eventful landing. After the retro-fire, the instrument module failed to separate from the descent module, and the landing could have been catastrophic due to the fact that the heat shield was not oriented properly.

However, the re-entry heat caused the propellant tanks in the instrument module to explode and the two modules eventually separated. The parachute had problems deploying properly and a failure of the soft-landing rockets occurred, so the landing was much harder than usual. Apparently, the landing shock was so great that Boris Volynov was thrown across the cabin and broke some of his front teeth.

Volynov landed far off course, in the Ural Mountains near Orenburg, in Russia. The event was kept secret and it eventually came to light in 1997, when an official history book mentioned the incident.

Forty years later, the Soyuz spacecraft is still the workhorse of the Russian space program, and continues to this day to serve as a transfer vehicle to and from the International Space Station (ISS), performing rendezvous and docking maneuvers on each mission.