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Embarrassing Shadow. publicity — After the TV came the standard publicity—the proud public announcements, the canned biographies of the cosmonauts. If it seemed stodgy and unsophisticated compared with the hoopla that surrounds U.S. space shots, the Russian performance was still perfectly timed. Voskhod trailed behind it an embarrassing shadow that seemed to darken the spring sunlight over Florida's Cape Kennedy. The planned U.S. Gemini shot dwindled in significance as Leonov's impressive feat added another first to the lengthening list that reminds the world how far the Russians are ahead in manned-space flight. Items: >First earth satellite, Sputnik I, Oct. 4, 1957. > First satellite to carry an animal, Sputnik II, Nov. 3, 1957. > First photograph of hidden side of the moon, Lunik III, launched Oct. 18, 1959. > First man in space, Yuri Gagarin,. April 12, 1961. > First double launching, Andrian Nikolayev and Pavel Popovich, Aug. 11, Aug. 12, 1962. > First woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, June 16, 1963. > First three-man satellite, Vladimir Komarov, Konstantin Feoktistov, Boris Yegorov, Oct. 12, 1964.
The Russians have lagged in the construction of the delicate instrumented craft that the U.S. puts up for communications, observing the weather, studying the sun, photographing the moon and probing the planets. But, as yet, the U.S. has nothing to match their powerful, reliable boosters and their spacious, multi-manned satellites. The whole world was understandably impressed by the latest Soviet success.
Radar View. To be sure, Leonov did not take U.S. spacemen by surprise.
They had been expecting a space spectacular for months; the sharp-eyed, long-range radars of the North American Air Defense Command watched the launch of the Voskhod II and followed it on orbit. Forewarned that a hole might open in the side of the spacecraft, changing its reflectivity, the radar men watched the reflected blip with special attention. As expected, they saw an irregularity develop in the space ship's electronic "signature." That was the instant when Leonov opened the hatch.
It was never any secret that large Soviet spaceships such as the three-man Voskhod I were capable of many more actions than they had accomplished. Because of the lack of a big booster to launch them, U.S. man-carrying capsules, including Gemini, are comparatively light and have to be pared to the bone to save fractions of ounces. The Voskhods are roomy, and Soviet designers make the most of their space.
The chief Soviet space designer, a mysterious figure who is never identified, described his ship sketchily. To get out into space, he said, Leonov used an air lock, a chamber with airtight doors at both ends. When he crawled into it, Comrade Belyayev sealed the inner door tight, and Leonov presumably tested his space suit to see that it was working properly; then he cautiously loosened the outer door. Though it must have been rehearsed on earth over and over again, this was surely a moment of hideous crisis.