On March 18,1965, about an hour and a half after the ship was placed in orbit 173x498 km, Leonov entered the Voskhod 2 Volga inflatable airlock to begin his spacewalk. The inner hatch is closed by Beliaev. This triggers the airlock depressurization and then the opening of the outer hatch. Leonov neatly emerges from the airlock connected to the space capsule by a 4.5-metre cable.

After about ten minutes floating in space, Leonov starts maneuvers to reintegrate the spacecraft. It is planned that he will be able to retract his front feet so that he can be reinstalled in his seat, without having to tumble in the airlock because the diameter of the airlock theoretically does not allow it. But then he realizes that, in a vacuum, the suit has expanded so much that his feet and hands are no longer positioned in the gloves and boots, as if he had shrunk. He has to drop the pressure in his suit at 0.27 atmospheres with a valve to regain some maneuverability and, contrary to what was planned, he barely enters the airlock head first. Once in the airlock, he makes a difficult turn to position his feet in front of the airlock. Leonov is exhausted, his pulse rate has risen to 143 beats per minute and his body temperature is 38 degrees Celsius. While swimming, he opened his helmet immediately after triggering the external hatch and pressurized the airlock in violation of his instructions. He re-enters the cabin, then Voskhod 2's crew begins the rest of the mission program. Leonov's walk through space lasted 12 minutes and 9 seconds.

The mission subsequently encountered other problems. The hatch failed to close properly, causing cabin air to leak slowly. During the 17th orbit, which was planned for the atmospheric re-entry of the ship, the firing of the retrofusées did not start because the ship's automatic steering system had not worked. The two cosmonauts had to use an imprecise manual system that landed them 386 kilometres from the planned site in an inhospitable area of Siberia in the middle of a dense forest. The two men spent two nights on the spot before they could be repatriated.

All these unforeseen adventures of the spacewalk and the mission were killed by the Soviet authorities after the announcement of the mission's success. They will not be revealed until much later when the regime is liberalised.

Apollo 11 Final Flight Plan signed by 3 Astronauts