They are astonishingly beautiful moments of human endeavour, but not all spacewalks go to plan – astronauts and cosmonauts have become stuck in hatches, lost tools and come close to drowning.

The launch of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission marks the beginning of what could be another historic moment in commercial spaceflight: the first spacewalk by a private citizen.
Billionaire Jared Isaacman, who has funded much of the mission, is aiming to become the first non-professional astronaut to complete a private spacewalk by stepping outside SpaceX’s Dragon capsule.
The mission is aiming to reach an altitude of around 870 miles (1,400km), which would make it the highest crewed spaceflight since the Apollo missions more than 50 years ago.
Isaacman will perform his two-hour spacewalk at a lower orbit altitude of around 434 miles (700km), and will be accompanied by SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis. The pair will be wearing SpaceX spacesuits equipped with helmet displays and helmet-mounted cameras.
But unlike other modern spacecraft, the Crew Dragon lacks an airlock, so the entire capsule will need to be depressurised before they exit, which when combined with the use of the new spacesuits increases the risk involved to all onboard.
If all goes to plan, the spacewalk will join a long list of iconic and memorable moments when astronauts have braved the outside of their spaceships with little more than a few layers of fabric between them and the expanse of space.
From a being stuck in an airlock to nearly drowning inside their own spacesuit, there has been no shortage of drama during the long history of extravehicular activities (EVAs), as spacewalks are formally known. Here are some of the most notable to have taken place since the Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first human to “walk” in space almost 60 years ago.
The first spacewalk
Getty Images Alexei Leonov floats in space just outside the Voskhod 2 spacecraft on 18 March 1965 (Credit: Getty Images)Getty Images
Alexei Leonov floats in space just outside the Voskhod 2 spacecraft on 18 March 1965 (Credit: Getty Images)
At the height of the Space Race during the Cold War, the Soviet Union had already beaten the United States to a number of key milestones. The USSR had put the first satellite into orbit with Sputnik 1, the first mammal into orbit and then in 1961, the first human.
On 18 March 1965, the USSR achieved another space first – sending the first human outside of a spacecraft to “walk” in space. Exiting the Voskhod 2 through an inflatable airlock deployed outside the spacecraft’s hatch, cosmonaut Alexei Leonov spent 12 minutes outside, attached via an umbilical cord.
But this first ever extravehicular activity didn’t go completely to plan. The spacesuit Leonov was wearing became rigid when pressurised in the near vacuum of space, making it difficult for him to move or take pictures. The cord connecting him to the Voskhod 2 also became twisted, sending him into a tumble that made it difficult to renter the airlock.

1:28
Watch archive footage of some key historic spacewalks.
Even when he did, he became stuck and was unable to close the hatch behind him. To get inside, Leonov had to open the valves on the spacesuit to reduce the pressure so he could move enough to squeeze inside and shut the hatch.
So exhausting had the escapade been that when his spacesuit was examined back on Earth, it contained several litres of his sweat.

The first American spacewalk
Nasa Astronaut Ed White became the first American to perform a spacewalk in June 1965 (Credit: Nasa)Nasa
Astronaut Ed White became the first American to perform a spacewalk in June 1965 (Credit: Nasa)
It would take more than two months before the first American would step outside the relative safety of their spacecraft into the vastness of space. On 3 June 1965, Ed White opened the hatch of the Gemini 4 spacecraft as it made its third orbit around the Earth.
Using a hand-held oxygen-jet gun, he manoeuvred himself out of the capsule just as the spacecraft was passing over Hawaii. He spent 23 minutes outside, at the end of an eight metre (26ft) long tether.
At first, he manoeuvred himself back and forth to the spacecraft three times using the jet gun, but it ran out of fuel after three minutes, so White was forced to move around by tugging on the tether.
White would tragically die just under two years later with two other astronauts in a fire that swept through the Apollo 1 spacecraft during a test on the launchpad.

The first space ‘selfie’
Nasa Astronaut Buzz Aldrin took the first self-portrait during a spacewalk on the four-day Gemini XII mission (Credit: Nasa)Nasa
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin took the first self-portrait during a spacewalk on the four-day Gemini XII mission (Credit: Nasa)
Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin might be better known for another walk he took as the second human to set foot on another world during the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon. But he is also responsible for what is possibly the first “selfie” taken during a spacewalk.
During the four-day Gemini XII mission in November 1966, he performed a number of spacewalks to photograph stars, test equipment and perform experiments. Before launching, Aldrin became the first astronaut to use neutral buoyancy training in a swimming pool to prepare for these spacewalks.
It was this preparation, he later claimed, that helped him overcome many of the manoeuvring problems that had been encountered during previous spacewalks. In total he clocked up five hours 48 minutes of spacewalking, a record at the time.
It was just before the end of his first spacewalk on the second day of the mission that Aldrin mounted a camera on the edge of the hatch into the Gemini spacecraft and pointed it towards himself.

The resulting “selfie” shows one of his eyes and forehead illuminated inside his helmet, with the blue curve of the Earth over his shoulder.
Untethered and alone
Nasa Bruce McCandless made the “big leap” of performing a spacewalk without the safety of a tether (Credit: Nasa)Nasa
Bruce McCandless made the “big leap” of performing a spacewalk without the safety of a tether (Credit: Nasa)
Astronauts had been bravely stepping outside their spacecraft for nearly 20 years by the time Bruce McCandless II performed his pioneering spacewalk in 1984. In the past, astronauts and cosmonauts had remained attached to their spacecraft by tether to keep them from floating off into the vastness of space.
The difference with McCandless was that he would be doing it untethered. Anyone who’s seen the 2013 film Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock, will understand just how terrifying a prospect this is.
Fortunately for McCandless, he carried on his back a new nitrogen-propelled device that could be controlled using joysticks. The Manned Manoeuvring Unit (MMU) had 24 nitrogen thrusters that allowed him to remain stable and move around in space.

During the STS-41-B Space Shuttle Mission on 7 February 1984, McCandless flew 91m (300ft) from the shuttle while testing the MMU for the first time. The picture above shows him at his maximum distance from the Space Shuttle Challenger, a lonely figure in the black of space and the curve of the Earth beneath him.
“It may have been one small step for Neil, but it’s a heck of a big leap for me,” McCandless said at the time, referring to the words spoken by Neil Armstrong as he took his first steps on the Moon in 1969.
Space salvage with a sting
Nasa The first satellite salvage mission saw astronaut Dale Gardner “sting” a spinning spacecraft with a specially designed docking device (Credit: Nasa)Nasa
The first satellite salvage mission saw astronaut Dale Gardner “sting” a spinning spacecraft with a specially designed docking device (Credit: Nasa)
Following McCandless’s success with the MMU, Nasa then put the backpack to work. In November 1984, astronauts Dale Gardner and Joseph Allen were dispatched from the Space Shuttle Discovery in a mission to retrieve a pair of faulty satellites from orbit for the first time. It would be the first time a salvage mission had been performed in space.
With the MMU on his back, Allen left the relative safety of the shuttle’s remote manipulator arm to cross the 11m (35ft) gap to the Palapa B-2 communications satellite. It had been deployed alongside the Westar VI communications satellite in an earlier shuttle mission that same year, but both had failed to reach the correct orbit.
Allen and Gardner’s job was to “sting” the slowly spinning satellites through the motor nozzle with a docking device they carried with them. Allen would go first, inserting the specially constructed Apogee Kick Motor Capture Device into the Palapa B-2 satellite’s motor. He then used his MMU jets to slow the rotation of the satellite. Mission specialist Anna Fisher would then help to manoeuvrer the failed satellite into Discovery’s cargo bay.