Berkut

The Berkut ('Golden Eagle') was a modified version of the SK-1 designed specifically for the first human extravehicular activity. Created in a rush to beat the American Gemini program's EVA plans, it added a second hermetic pressure layer and a shoulder-mounted KP-55 life support backpack providing approximately 45 minutes of oxygen. The mission nearly ended in disaster: upon depressurizing the airlock, the suit over-inflated in vacuum and became dangerously rigid. Leonov could not re-enter the airlock feet-first as planned and had to bleed oxygen from the suit manually — risking hypoxia — to reduce its volume enough to squeeze back in head-first. The near-fatal incident directly drove the complete redesign of Soviet EVA suit philosophy for all subsequent Orlan-series suits.