Alexey Leonov(1934-2019)

Aleksey Leonov is Soviet cosmonaut number 11, the first man who went into outer space. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union (1965, 1975). Was the eighth child in the family. He studied at the Kemerovo school. In 1947, the family moved to a new place of work of his father in the city of Kaliningrad. Leonov graduated from high school in 1953. In 1955 he graduated from the 10th Military Aviation School of Initial Pilot Training in Kremenchug. In 1957 Aleksey graduated from the Chuguev Military Aviation School of Pilots. In 1960 he was enrolled in the first detachment of Soviet cosmonauts. On March 18-19, 1965, together with Pavel Belyayev, he flew into space as a co-pilot on the Voskhod-2 spacecraft. During the flight, Leonov performed the first spacewalk in the history of cosmonautics, displaying exceptional courage, especially in an emergency situation, when the swollen space suit prevented him from returning to the spacecraft. In the years 1965-1969 in the group of astronauts Leonov participated in the preparation of the lunar flying and lunar landing programs. Together with O. Makarov, he was part of the first of the three crews formed in 1967 to fly around the moon. In 1968 he graduated from the Air Force Engineering Academy. In 1971 Leonov was the commander of the main crew of the Union-11. In 1975, July 15-21, together with V. Kubasov, made the second flight into space as a commander of the Soyuz-19 spacecraft. In 1970-1991, he was deputy head of the Cosmonaut Training Center. Leonov has 4 inventions and more than 10 scientific papers.