If this photo from 200-plus miles above Earth dizzies you, imagine how it felt to be Alexei Leonov on March 18, 1965. The Soviet cosmonaut achieved the first-ever extravehicular activity (EVA—but you and I just call it a spacewalk). He spent about 12 minutes outside the orbiting Voskhod 2 capsule. It was the ultimate risk: No one knew just what could happen to a human body in the vacuum of space. Near heatstroke, drenched with sweat, and with his suit dangerously inflating, Leonov barely made it back inside the airlock.
A stroll above the stratosphere
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
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To the 155th on the 155th
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Happy 800th, Salisbury Cathedral
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Barcelona bids farewell to summer
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Happy Easter!
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Rice processing in Bangladesh
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An icy extravaganza
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Three cheers for polar bears!
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In the Himalayas for International Mountain Day
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World Water Day
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International Tiger Day
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River otters at Acadia National Park, Maine
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Big-wave hunters watch Nazaré
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Two rocks and a heart spot
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Longtailed widowbird at Rietvlei Nature Reserve, South Africa
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World Migratory Bird Day
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A bridge too Fawr
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Sea fireflies at the seashore
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Cloudy with a chance of enlightenment
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Borrego Badlands
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Here there be dragons
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Celestial Spain
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Badlands National Parks 45th anniversary
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Staircase of turquoise pools
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Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch on the institution s 175th anniversary
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Gentoo penguins in Antarctica
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Freeze frame
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St. Patricks Day in County Waterford, Ireland
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Lake Tekapo, New Zealand
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Ready. Set. Snow.
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Rocks on the move