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First Walk in Space - March 18th, 1965

Photograph by Brian McGowan on Unsplash.com

The first space walk was completed by a Russian astronaut named Alexei Leonov on March 18th, 1965. A space walk is the term for any time an astronaut leaves the space vehicle to go out into actual space. Astronauts don't just go on spacewalks whenever they want or just for fun, spacewalks occur when there is a job to do (for example, fixing something, conducting an experiment, or testing equipment). The world record for most spacewalks is 16, which is a total of 82 hours out in space!

In order to safely spacewalk and astronaut has to dress up in a special spacesuit that gives them oxygen and water they need to survive out in space. They also have to leave the spacecraft through a special door that ensures no air escapes the spaceship when they exit. The astronauts are also tethered to the spacecraft so that they don't float away.

A neat fact from the NASA website on spacewalks says that spacewalks are very similar to swimming in water, so to train for spacewalks the astronaughts do a lot of training in a special pool.

Below are several space and astronaut activities that are a great way to celebrate this awesome SPACE-iversary!