Surfing on the success of Sputnik and Gagarin, the USSR was to chalk up another first in the space race. On 18 March 1965, cosmonaut Alexis Leonov left his Voskhod craft wearing a pressurised suit attached to a 15-metre "umbilical cord and floated in space for ten minutes or so. The USA hit back 2 months later when Ed White walked in space (Gemini IV). Today, space walks serve to carry out repairs on satellites or construct orbital space stations.