One Giant Struggle - The First Space Walk; 1965

By the sixties the main space agencies had realised there is nothing like stretching your legs after a long drive. The race was on to conduct the first walk in space. The Soviets were so determined to complete a successful spacewalk that they boldly pushed Alexei Leonov out of the airlock in March 1965. Going where no man had gone before proved easy enough – but getting back into where man had just been proved somewhat harder.

The live TV feed of Leonov’s bold, slightly stilted steps, was abruptly cut, officially due to transmission difficulties. The reality on the final frontier was that scientists had not accounted for the effects of space on the suit Leonov was wearing, or the technicalities of keeping him alive for any longer than forty five minutes. The result was that Leonov was running out of air and his space suit had become rigid, making it difficult (very nearly impossible) to manoeuvre sufficiently to open and then re-enter the airlock.

In what can only be described as sheer bravery (Leonov himself used the word "desperation") he persisted in his efforts, eventually beating the odds, squishing his bloated and rigid suit back head first into the airlock. By some miracle Leonov vented just enough oxygen from his suit to continue breathing while not actually raising his body temperature boiling point – all of which he achieved alone.

The mission was successful although even the re-entry was plagued with problems; the capsule's automatic guidance system failed. This required the crew to manually land the ship, avoid hitting China (harder than you might think from a height) and inadvertently starting a war, whilst also avoiding any major population centres. On re-entry the module began to spin wildly and went into free-fall which resulted in them landing so far off course that nobody was quite sure if they had landed – at least in one identifiable piece. The authorities assured their families that they had landed safely and were 'resting' which, depending on your interpretation of the word, was kind of true.

Stranded in Siberia, surrounded by aggressive wolves and bears in temperatures as low as 30C was something of a walk in the park for Leonov and his colleagues. However, issues with the capsule's doors (again) made the night uncomfortable. Unable to shut the door, the cosmonauts had to endure the temperatures, a fact which was not helped by the sweat that had pooled inside their spacesuits. Proving that even space explorers can be down to earth, practical types, they stripped, rung out their wet clothing and pulled the space suits apart to access the layers of softer, warmer material. More or less respectably dressed once more they were rescued the following day when a passing cargo plane picked up their signal. The nine kilometre ski to the nearest rescue helicopter probably made the whole experience seem like a holiday. No doubt the sort of experience that you laugh about later; much later.

While the first spacewalk didn't go entirely to plan and the landing didn't go much better, with a wish.co.uk experience everything should run much more smoothly.

Freelance writer Chris Hoole is fascinated by the bits of space exploration history that nearly went wrong.  Here he explores the near-disaster of the first spacewalk.