Alexey Leonov

Alexey Leonov was born on May 30, 1934 in Listvyanka, West Siberian Krai, Russian SFSR, USSR as Aleksey Arkhipovich Leonov.

Leonov was a fighter pilot before becoming a cosmonaut. He graduated with honors from Chuguyev Higher Air Force School in 1957. He then joined the Soviet Air Force units as a fighter pilot, becoming an expert parachutist and instructor of military air forces for paratroop training.

When the call came for cosmonaut candidates in 1959, Leonov was picked as one of the first 20 cosmonauts. He spent over 7 days in space aboard 2 spaceflights. Leonov was the eleventh cosmonaut in Soviet space history and the fifteenth person in space.

The first man to "walk" in space on March 18, 1965, when he floated outside the spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 10 minutes, secured to the spacecraft by only a safety line. He pushed away from the craft and let himself drift 17.5 feet away before reeling himself back in. There were tense moments during the first of his two extravehicular activities when Leonov found his spacesuit too rigid to reenter the airlock. He bled air out of his suit and was able to fit back through the inflatable airlock capsule.

Leonov was to be the Commander of the first Soviet Moon mission, which was cancelled when Apollo 11 landed on the Moon in 1969.

On July 15, 1975, Leonov was commander of the Russian flight in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first linking of Soviet and American spacecraft. Leonov trained in Houston, where he learned to speak English fluently and made friends with everyone with his quick wit, humor, and charm. The Soyuz and Apollo crafts separated after approximately two days. The Soyuz craft was recovered on July 21, fewer than 10 kilometers away from its target point.

He is known for his work on Petlya Oriona (1981), Glavnyj (2015) and Zerkalo vremeni (1976). He was married to Svetlana Leonova.

In 1992-1993 Leonov was the director of the space programs of the company "Chetek".

His widow, Svetlana Pavlovna Leonova (nee Datsenko; b. 1940), is an retired editor of the editorial and publishing department at the CPC. They had two daughters together, Viktoria Leonova (April 21, 1961-July 1996), who worked in the General Directorate of Sovfreight of the Ministry of the Navy, and Oksana Leonova (b. 1967), who graduated from the Military Institute of Foreign Languages and worked as a translator. Now she lives in Los Angeles with her husband and works in a firm involved in video and film distribution. Leonov also had two grandchildren, Daniil and Karina.

Leonov was promoted to Major General following the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Later in his career he was appointed the Deputy Director of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, in charge of international and guest cosmonauts. As of June 1999, he was the Chief of the International Detachment, training guest cosmonauts for space travel.Editor, designer, and cartoonist for APOGEE, the formerly supersecret cosmonaut newsletter.

In the science fiction novel by Arthur Clarke "2010: Odyssey Two" and in his film version Space Odyssey 2010, the Soviet interplanetary spacecraft was named in honor of Alexey Leonov.

Since 2012, the annual children's sailing regatta "Cosmonaut Leonov Cup" has been held in Kaliningrad.

"Man of the Year 2013" - Russian Biographical Institute and Institute of Economic Strategies.

Leonov was awarded title "Honorary Citizen of the Moscow Region" (October 2014).

"Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" (dir. L. Besson, 2017) - the film begins with documentary shots of the Apollo Soyuz docking, which shows how A. Leonov welcomes the American astronauts after docking.