Alexey Leonov | First Human to walk in Space

Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov (Russian: Алексе́й Архи́пович Лео́нов; IPA: [ɐlʲɪˈksʲej ɐˈrxʲipəvʲɪtɕ lʲɪˈonəf]; born 30 May 1934 inListvyanka, West Siberian Krai, Soviet Union) is a retired Soviet/Russian cosmonaut and Air Force Major General. On 18 March 1965, he became the first human to conduct extra-vehicular activity (EVA), exiting the capsule during the Voskhod 2 mission for a 12-minute spacewalk.

Biography[edit]

Alexey Leonov (left, back row) with fellow cosmonauts in 1965

Leonov with Valery Kubasov, his Soyuz 19crewmate (1975)

Leonov was one of the 20 Soviet Air Force pilots selected to be part of the first cosmonaut group in 1960. Like all the Soviet cosmonauts, Leonov was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. His walk in space was originally to have taken place on the Vostok11 mission, but this was cancelled, and the historic event happened on the Voskhod 2 flight instead. He was outside the spacecraft for 12 minutes and nine seconds on 18 March 1965, connected to the craft by a 5.35-meter tether. At the end of the spacewalk, Leonov's spacesuit had inflated in the vacuum of space to the point where he could not re-enter the airlock. He opened a valve to allow some of the suit's pressure to bleed off and was barely able to get back inside the capsule. Leonov had spent eighteen months undergoing intensiveweightlessness training for the mission.

As of March 2015, Leonov is the last survivor of the five cosmonauts in the Voskhod programme.

In 1968, Leonov was selected to be commander of a circumlunar Soyuz flight. Since all unmanned test flights of this project failed, and the Apollo 8 mission had already given that step in the Space Race to the United States, the flight was cancelled. He was also selected to be the first Soviet person to land on the Moon, aboard the LOK/N1 spacecraft. This project was also cancelled. (The design required a risky spacewalk between lunar vehicles, something that contributed to his selection.) Leonov was to have been commander of the 1971 Soyuz 11 mission to Salyut 1, the first manned space station, but his crew was replaced with the backup after the cosmonaut Valery Kubasov was suspected to have contracted tuberculosis.

Leonov was to have commanded the next mission to Salyut 1, but this was scrapped after the deaths of the Soyuz 11 crew members, and the space station was lost. The next two Salyuts (actually the military Almaz station) were lost at launch or failed soon after, and Leonov's crew stood by. By the time Salyut 4 reached orbit, Leonov had been switched to a more prestigious project.

Leonov's second trip into space was similarly significant: he commanded the Soviet half of the 1975Apollo-Soyuz mission – Soyuz 19 – the first joint space mission between the Soviet Union and the United States.

From 1976 to 1982, Leonov was the commander of the cosmonaut team ("Chief Cosmonaut") and deputy director of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, where he oversaw crew training. He also edited the cosmonaut newsletter Neptune. He retired in 1991.

Leonov's painting Near the Moon(1967)

Leonov is an accomplished artist whose published books include albums of his artistic works and works he did in collaboration with his friend Andrei Sokolov. Leonov took coloured pencils and paper into space, where he sketched the Earth and drew portraits of the Apollo astronauts who flew with him during the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.^[1] Arthur C. Clarke wrote in his notes to 2010: Odyssey Two that, after a 1968 screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Leonov pointed out to him that the alignment of the Moon, Earth, and Sun shown in the opening is essentially the same as that in Leonov's 1967 painting Near the Moon, although the painting's diagonal framing of the scene was not replicated in the film. Clarke kept an autographed sketch of this painting—which Leonov made after the screening, hanging on his office wall.^[2]

In 2001, he was a vice president of Moscow-based Alfa-Bank and an adviser to the first deputy of the Board.^[3]

In 2004, Leonov and former American astronaut David Scott began work on a dual biography/history of the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Titled Two Sides of the Moon: Our Story of the Cold War Space Race, it was published in 2006. Neil Armstrong and Tom Hanks both wrote introductions to the book.

Leonov was also a contributor to the 2007 book Into That Silent Sea by Colin Burgess and Francis French, which describes his life and career in space exploration.

In 2011 Leonov joined his friends astronomer Garik Israelian, astrophysicist and Queen guitarist Brian May, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, and others, to present a talk at the first Starmus Festival in the Canary Islands. This unique gathering focuses on astronomy, space exploration, allied sciences, music, and art, and Leonov’s talk focused on his cosmonaut experiences including the famous first spacewalk. Leonov subsequently joined the Board of Directors of Starmus, and in 2014 spoke at the second Starmus Festival, giving a special presentation about the Soviet space program, complete with writing out equations and recollections on an auditorium blackboard. The 2014 Festival honored Leonov along with American astronaut Neil Armstrong, who had participated in the first Starmus and died in 2012. Leonov’s 2011 talk was included in the book Starmus: 50 Years of Man in Space.^[4]

Honours and awards[edit]

Twice Hero of the Soviet Union (23 March 1965; 22 July 1975)
Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR (1966)
Order for Merit to the Fatherland, 4th class (2 March 2000) - for his contribution to the state in the development of manned space flight
Order of Friendship (12 April 2011) - for outstanding contribution to the development of the national manned space flight and many years of fruitful social activities
Two Orders of Lenin
Order of the Red Star
Order for Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR, 3rd class
Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"
Jubilee Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
Jubilee Medal "60 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
Jubilee Medal "70 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
Medal "Veteran of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
Medals "For Impeccable Service", 1st, 2nd and 3rd classes
USSR State Prize (1981) (with AV Filipchenko)
Lenin Komsomol Prize (1979) - for the book-album "Man and the Universe" (with AK Sokolov)
Honoured Master of Sport of the USSR (1965)

Foreign awards:

Hero of Socialist Labour (People's Republic of Bulgaria, 1965)
Hero of Vietnam
Hero of Labour (Democratic Republic of Vietnam, 1966)
Order of Karl Marx (German Democratic Republic, 1966)
Order of Georgi Dimitrov (People's Republic of Bulgaria)
Order of the Banner of the Hungarian People's Republic
Order of Merit, 3rd class (Ukraine, 12 April 2011) - for his significant personal contribution to the development of space industry, advances in the creation and implementation of space systems and technologies, professional excellence
Medal A. Becker.
Order "For Merit", 1st class (Syria, 1966)

Public organizations:

"Gold Medal partisan" (Italy, 1967)
Ludwig Nobel Prize (2007)
Order of Saint Constantine the Great (Union of the Golden Knights of the Order of St. Constantine the Great)
Order "Golden Star" (Foundation Heroes of the Soviet Union and Heroes of the Russian Federation together with the organizing committee of the International Forum "The potential of the nation").
Order the "Pride of Russia" (Foundation for the "Pride of the Fatherland", 2007).
National Award "To the glory of the Fatherland" in the "Glory to Russia" (International Academy of Social Sciences and International Academy of patronage, 2008).
Order "the glory of the Fatherland", 2nd class (2008)

Other awards and titles

Honorary Citizen of: Belgorod, Vologda, Kaliningrad, Kaluga, Kemerovo, Nalchik, Perm; Arkalyk (Kazakhstan), Kremenchug (Ukraine), Veliko Tarnovo, Vidin, Svishtov(Bulgaria), Usti nad Labem (Czech Republic), San Antonio (Chile)
Reward edged weapon — a nominal officer Dirk "Alexei Leonov"
Commander of the Order of St. Anne III degree from the head of the Russian Imperial House Maria Vladimirovna Romanova (2008)
Commander of the Order of St. Anne II degree from the head of the Russian Imperial House Maria Vladimirovna Romanova (2011)
Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Fine Arts

Legacy[edit]

Alexey Leonov (right) shares a moment with Anton Shkaplerov (left) in October 2011.

Arthur C. Clarke's novel 2010: Odyssey Two was dedicated to Leonov and Andrei Sakharov; the fictional spaceship Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov in the book was named after him.
Leonov wore a Russian Poljot "FMWF Strela" watch (a transliteration of СТРЕЛА, which actually means "Arrow") chronograph during his historic first space walk.
At an Apollo-Soyuz Test Project press conference, Leonov stated (in English) that, while in the United States for ASTP training, he wanted to visit Hollywood, because he had aspirations of being a movie star. (He then joked, "I don't want [to be a movie star] ... Tom Stafford want!")
Leonov, along with Rusty Schweickart, Vitaly Sevastyanov, and Georgi Grechko established the Association of Space Explorers in 1984. Membership is open to all people who have flown in outer space.
In the Star Trek novel Destiny: Gods of Night there is a ship named the U.S.S. Alexey Leonov, which is sacrificed to save the planet Korvat from the Borg.
Leonov is featured as a character in the 2013 Doctor Who comic book story "Space Oddity", published by IDW Publishing.

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