Aleksei Leonov

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{{Infobox Astronaut | name =Aleksei Arkhipovich Leonov | image =Aleksei leonov.jpg | USSR =USSR | nationality =Soviet | date_birth =May 30, 1934 | place_birth =Listvyanka, Kemerowo Oblast | occupation =Fighter pilot | rank =General, Red Army | selection =Air Force Group 1 | time =1d 02h 02m | mission =Voskhod 2 | insignia =Image:Voskhod2patch.png |}} General Aleksei Arkhipovich Leonov, Red Army (Ret.) (Russian: Алексе́й Архи́пович Лео́нов; born May 30, 1934 in Listvyanka) is a retired Soviet/Russian cosmonaut who, on March 18, 1965 became the first person to walk in space.

Leonov was one of the 20 air force pilots selected as 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 moment happened on the Voskhod 2 flight instead. He was outside the spacecraft around 5 meters away for nearly 12 minutes on March 18, 1965. After the 12 minute spacewalk, Leonov's spacesuit had inflated in the vacuum 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 the mission.

In 1968 Leonov was selected to be commander of a circumlunar Soyuz flight. However as all unmanned test flights of this mission failed, and the Apollo 8 mission already gave that point in the Space Race to the USA, the flight was cancelled. He was also selected to have been the first Soviet man to land on the moon aboard the LOK/N1 spacecraft, which was also cancelled (incidentally, this design required a risky spacewalk between lunar vehicles, something that contributed to his selection). In 1971 Leonov was to have been commander of the ill-fated Soyuz 11 mission to Salyut 1 the first manned space station, but his crew was replaced with the back-up after Cosmonaut Valery Kubasov was suspected to have tuberculosis.

Leonov was to have commanded the next mission to Salyut 1, but this was scrapped after the deaths of Soyuz 11 crew 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 side of the Apollo-Soyuz mission, Soyuz 19, the first joint mission between the Soviet and US space programmes.

Image:TimeCoverAlekseiLeonov.jpg 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 currently chairs an investment corporation in Moscow. He is an accomplished artist and his work has been widely exhibited and published; his painting Near the Moon (1968) is uncannily like the opening scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Arthur C. Clarke's book 2010: Odyssey Two was dedicated to Leonov and Andrei Sakharov; the fictional spaceship in the book Aleksei Leonov was named after him.

Aleksei Leonov was decorated twice as the Hero of the Soviet Union (March 23, 1965 and 1975). He was also awarded the Order of Lenin, Order of the Red Star, numerous medals and foreign orders. He bears the title of the Hero of Socialist Labor of Bulgaria and Hero of Vietnam.

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