When was Alexei Leonov born and where did he grow up?
Alexei Leonov was born on the 30th of May 1934 in Listvyanka, West Siberian Krai. He grew up as the eighth of nine surviving children to Yevdokia and Arkhip.
Alexei Leonov was born on the 30th of May 1934 in Listvyanka, West Siberian Krai. He grew up as the eighth of nine surviving children to Yevdokia and Arkhip.
Alexei Leonov became the first person to conduct a spacewalk during the Voskhod 2 mission for 12 minutes and 9 seconds. His spacesuit inflated in the vacuum of space causing him to open a valve to bleed off pressure so he could re-enter the airlock safely.
Political and engineering failures ultimately scrapped these ambitious lunar landing programs including the Soyuz 7K-L1 flight and the LOK/N1 spacecraft project. The Apollo 8 mission had already achieved circumlunar flight before these Soviet efforts could succeed.
Alexei Leonov commanded the Soviet half of the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission which was the first joint space mission between the Soviet Union and the United States. He docked his capsule with an American Apollo capsule for two days and formed lasting friendships with US commander Thomas P. Stafford.
Alexei Leonov drew a small sketch of an orbital sunrise on the 18th of March 1965 making it the first artwork created in outer space. He also sketched portraits of Apollo astronauts during the 1975 mission and painted Near the Moon which influenced Arthur C. Clarke's novel 2010: Odyssey Two.
Alexei Leonov retired from active cosmonaut duties in 1991 and joined the United Russia party on the 18th of December 2002. He remained a member of the party's Supreme Council until his death in October 2019 after serving as vice-president at Alfa-Bank by 2001.