Aleksei Leonov

Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov (Russian: Алексе́й Архи́пович Лео́нов; born May 30, 1934 in Listvyanka, Kemerovo Oblast, Soviet Union) is a retired Soviet/Russian cosmonaut and Air Force General who, on March 18, 1965, became the first human to conduct a space walk. Leonov was one of the twenty air force pilots selected to be part of the first cosmonaut group in 1960. His spacewalk was originally to have taken place on the Vostok 11 mission, but this w... more

Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov (Russian: Алексе́й Архи́пович Лео́нов; born May 30, 1934 in Listvyanka, Kemerovo Oblast, Soviet Union) is a retired Soviet/Russian cosmonaut and Air Force General who, on March 18, 1965, became the first human to conduct a space walk. Leonov was one of the twenty air force pilots selected to be part of the first cosmonaut group in 1960. His spacewalk was originally to have taken place on the Vostok 11 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 March 18, 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 reenter 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 some eighteen months undergoing intense weightlessness training for... less