Dead Reckoning: The Globus and Voskhod 2

In March 1965, two Soviet cosmonauts fell out of the sky into a frozen forest in the Urals, trapped inside a cramped capsule hundreds of kilometers from rescue. Their survival, and their journey home, relied on an intricate mechanical computer made of aluminum, clockwork, and paper.  In this Episode Laboratory 47: the branch of the Soviet Flight Research Institute in Zhukovsky, run by engineer Sergei Darevsky The Globus: the indicator of position in flight, a paper-wrapped aluminum globe run by differential gears and cams with orbital curves ground into their edges Dead reckoning in spaceflight: why the instrument knew nothing it wasn't told and what that meant for the cosmonauts Voskhod 2: Pavel Belyayev and Alexey Leonov, a spacewalk that nearly ended in catastrophe, a failed automatic descent, and the forty-six seconds that decided where they landed Episode Music Jay Opie / Nihilore, CC BY 4.0Satellites and Waterfalls Something Beautiful is Going to Happen Always Surrounded, Never There Who Will Listen on a Dying Planet Additional Reading Becker, J. (2026, June 7). Spaceflight mission report: Voskhod 2. Spacefacts. https://www.spacefacts.de/mission/english/voskhod-2.htm Leonov, A. (2005, January). The nightmare of Voskhod 2. Air & Space Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/the-nightmare-of-voskhod-2-8655378/ Shirriff, K. (2023, January 21). Inside the Globus INK: A mechanical navigation computer for Soviet spaceflight. Ken Shirriff's Blog. https://www.righto.com/2023/01/inside-globus-ink-mechanical-navigation.html Tiapchenko, Y. (2003). Information display systems for Russian spacecraft: An overview (S. Gerovitch, Comp. & Trans.). Computing in the Soviet Space Program, MIT. https://web.mit.edu/slava/space/essays/essay-tiapchenko1.htm Voskhod 2. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved September 1, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Voskhod_2&oldid=1350315400 Support the show 💚 This show is independently produced. You can support the show by joining the show's Patreon. Patreon members get access to "Found in the Margins" bonus episodes and help make the show possible. You can also donate via Buy Me a Coffee. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And don't forget to sign up to receive Notes from the Machine with each episode.