Alexey Leonov

In July 1975, Leonov commanded the Soyuz capsule in the Apollo–Soyuz mission, which docked in space for two days with an American Apollo capsule. Leonov was twice Hero of the Soviet Union (1965, 1975), a Major General of Aviation (1975), laureate of the USSR State Prize (1981), and a member of the Supreme Council of the United Russia party (2002–2019).

Alexey Leonov studied at Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy and Kremenchuk flight college of National Aviation University. The recorded working language is Russian. The field of work recorded is astronautics and space exploration. Distinctions recorded are Hero of the Soviet Union, Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 1st class, Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 3rd class and Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 4th class.

• Name — Alexei Leonov • Type — Soviet cosmonaut • Birth Name — Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov • Born — 30 May 1934 • Died — 11 October 2019 • Birthplace — Listvyanka, West Siberian Krai, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union • Place of death — Moscow, Russia • Resting Place — Federal Military Memorial Cemetery, Moscow Oblast • Occupation — Fighter pilot, cosmonaut • Rank — Major general, Soviet Air Force • Selection — Air Force Group 1 (1960) • Evas — 1 • Eva Time — 12minutes, 9seconds • Time — 7days, 33minutes, 3seconds • Retirement — 26 January 1982 • Awards — Hero of the Soviet Union (twice)

Leonov was born on 30 May 1934 in Listvyanka, West Siberian Krai, Russian SFSR, in a Russian family. His grandfather had been forced to relocate to Siberia for his role in the 1905 Russian Revolution. Alexei was the eighth of nine surviving children born to Yevdokia (Sotnikova) and Arkhip. His father was an electrician and miner. In 1936, his father was arrested and declared an "enemy of the people". Leonov wrote in his autobiography: "He was not alone: many were being arrested. It was part of a conscientious drive by the authorities to eradicate anyone who showed too much independence or strength of character. These were the years of Stalin's purges. Many disappeared into remote gulags and were never seen again." The family moved in with one of his married sisters in Kemerovo. His father rejoined the family in Kemerovo after he was released. He was compensated for his wrongful imprisonment. Leonov used art as a way to provide more food for the family. He began his art career by drawing flowers on ovens and later painted landscapes on canvases. The Soviet government encouraged its citizens to move to Soviet-occupied Prussia, so in 1948 his family relocated to Kaliningrad. Leonov graduated from secondary school (No. 21) in 1953. He applied to the Academy of Arts in Riga, Latvia, but decided not to attend due to the high tuition costs. Leonov decided to join a Ukrainian preparatory flying school in Kremenchug. He made his first solo flight in May 1955. While indulging in his passion for art by studying part-time in Riga, Leonov started an advanced two-year course to become a fighter pilot at the Chuguev Higher Air Force Pilots School in the Ukrainian SSR. On 30 October 1957, Leonov graduated with an honours degree and was commissioned a lieutenant in the 113th Parachute Aviation Regiment, part of the 10th Engineering Aviation Division of the 69th Air Army in Kyiv. On 13 December 1959, he married Svetlana Pavlovna Dozenko. The next day he moved to East Germany to his new assignment with the 294th Reconnaissance Regiment of the 24th Air Army.

• Illustration — Alexei Leonov (far left, back row) with fellow cosmonauts in 1965 He was one of the 20 Soviet Air Forces pilots selected to be part of the first cosmonaut training group in 1960. As with most cosmonauts, Leonov was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. His walk in space was originally to have taken place on the Voskhod 1 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 18 March 1965, connected to the craft by a 4.8 m tether. At the end of the spacewalk, Leonov's spacesuit had inflated in the vacuum of space to the point where he could not re-enter 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. While on the mission, Leonov drew a small sketch of an orbital sunrise, the first work of art made in outer space. Leonov had spent eighteen months undergoing weightlessness training for the mission. In 1968, Leonov was selected to be commander of a circumlunar Soyuz 7K-L1 flight. This was cancelled because of delays in achieving a reliable circumlunar flight (only the later Zond 7 and Zond 8 members of the programme were successful) and the Apollo 8 mission had already achieved that step in the Space Race. He was also selected to be the first Soviet person to land on the Moon, aboard the LOK/N1 spacecraft. This project was also cancelled. (The design required a spacewalk between lunar vehicles, something that contributed to his selection.) Leonov was to have been commander of the 1971 Soyuz 11 mission to Salyut 1, the first crewed space station, but his crew was replaced with the backup after one of the members, cosmonaut Valery Kubasov, was suspected to have contracted tuberculosis (the other member was Pyotr Kolodin). Leonov was to have commanded the next mission to Salyut 1, but this was scrapped after the deaths of the Soyuz 11 crew members, 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 as commander of Soyuz 19, the Soviet half of the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission—the first joint space mission between the Soviet Union and the United States. During the project Leonov became lasting friends with the US commander Thomas P. Stafford, with Leonov being the godfather of Stafford's younger children. Stafford gave a eulogy in Russian at Leonov's funeral in October 2019. 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 1992. • Illustration — alt=The five crew members of ASTP sitting around a miniature model of their spacecraft The Apollo-Soyuz crew in 1975 • Illustration — The historic handshake between Leonov and Tom Stafford • Illustration — Leonov (left) with Deke Slayton in the Soyuz spacecraft

Leonov was an accomplished artist whose published books include albums of his artistic works and works he did in collaboration with his friend Andrei Sokolov. Leonov took coloured pencils and paper into space, where he sketched the Earth, becoming the first artist in space, and drew portraits of the Apollo astronauts who flew with him during the 1975 Apollo–Soyuz Test Project. Arthur C. Clarke wrote in his notes to his 1982 novel 2010: Odyssey Two that, after a 1968 screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Leonov pointed out to him that the alignment of the Moon, Earth, and Sun shown in the opening is essentially the same as that in Leonov's 1967 painting Near the Moon, although the painting's diagonal framing of the scene was not replicated in the film. Clarke kept an autographed sketch of this painting—which Leonov made after the screening—hanging on his office wall. Clarke dedicated 2010: Odyssey Two to Leonov and Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov. The fictional spaceship in the book is named Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov. Together with Valentin Selivanov, Leonov wrote the script for the 1980 science fiction film The Orion Loop. • Illustration — Leonov at a meeting in the Federation Council, 2016 Leonov was the head of the Banner of Peace in Space project from 1990 until his death. Leonov retired in 1991 and lived in Moscow in his final years. He had been in reserve since March 1992. In 1992–1993, he was director of space programs at Chetek. Leonov was an advisor to the First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Moscow-based Alfa-Bank, and in 2001, vice-president of Alfa-Bank. He was a member of the United Russia party since 18 December 2002 and a member of the party's Supreme Council. He received recognition as an artist (he collaborated with Andrei Sokolov), and his works are widely exhibited and published. In 2004, Leonov and former American astronaut David Scott began work on a dual memoir covering the history of the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Titled Two Sides of the Moon: Our Story of the Cold War Space Race, it was published in 2006. Neil Armstrong and Tom Hanks both wrote introductions to the book. Leonov was interviewed by Francis French for the 2007 book Into That Silent Sea by Colin Burgess and French. Leonov died in Moscow on 11 October 2019 after a long illness. His funeral took place on 15 October. He was 85 and the last living member of the five cosmonauts in the Voskhod programme. He was survived by his wife Svetlana Dozenko, daughter Oksana, and two grandchildren; his other daughter, Viktoria, died in 1996.

• Illustration — Leonov, Stephen Hawking, and Brian May at the Starmus Festival, 2016 • 1975 Gold Space Medal from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) in 1976. FAI created an exception which allowed Thomas P. Stafford to be awarded it alongside him; typically the award is restricted to one person per year. • International Space Hall of Fame (1976) • International Air & Space Hall of Fame, inducted in 2001, along with Valeri Kubasov, Vance D. Brand, Deke Slayton, and Thomas P. Stafford • Ludwig Nobel Prize (2007) • Elmer A. Sperry Award (US, 2008), with Konstantin Bushuyev, Thomas P. Stafford, and Glynn Lunney • Order of Saint Constantine the Great (Union of the Golden Knights of the Order of St. Constantine the Great) • Order "Golden Star" (Foundation Heroes of the Soviet Union and Heroes of the Russian Federation) • Order the "Pride of Russia" (Foundation for the "Pride of the Fatherland", 2007) • National Award "To the Glory of the Fatherland" in the "Glory to Russia" class (International Academy of Social Sciences and International Academy of patronage, 2008) • Order of "the Glory of the Fatherland", 2nd class (2008) • 2011 co-founder and the member of board of directors of the international festival of science, space and music Starmus together with astrophysicist Garik Israelyan, musician of the band Queen Brian May, scientist-educator Stephen Hawking, a number of astronauts and Nobel laureates.

• Illustration — Alexei Leonov on 1965 USSR 10 kopek stamp Leonov's accomplishments in space were honored with issuance of stamps by numerous countries. • Alexey Leonov (first space walk) on Soviet Union stamp 10 kopeks (issued 1965) • Space Flight of Voskhod 2 and Lt. Col. Alexei Leonov on Hungary (Magyar Posta) stamp (issued 1965) • Apollo-Soyuz Test Project on Soviet Union 50 kopeks stamp (issued 1975) • 50th anniversary of first space walk on Solomon Islands stamp $12 (issued 2015)

Alexey Leonov is recorded as having studied at Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy and Kremenchuk flight college of National Aviation University.

• Illustration — Leonov receiving the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 3rd class, from Vladimir Putin in 2014 • Illustration — Leonov in 2016, wearing his two Hero of the Soviet Union medals • Twice Hero of the Soviet Union (23 March 1965 and 22 July 1975) • Two Orders of Lenin (23 March 1965 and 22 July 1975) • Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR (1965) • Merited Master of Sport of the USSR (1965) • Order of the Red Star (1961) • Order for Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR, 3rd class (1975) • Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" • Jubilee Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" • Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" • Jubilee Medal "60 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" • Jubilee Medal "70 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" • Medal "Veteran of the Armed Forces of the USSR" • Medals "For Impeccable Service", 1st, 2nd and 3rd classes • Lenin Komsomol Prize (1980) • USSR State Prize (1981) • Order for Merit to the Fatherland, 4th class (2 March 2000) • Order of Friendship (12 April 2011) • Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 3rd class (22 May 2014) • Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 1st class (29 May 2019)

• Hero of Socialist Labour (People's Republic of Bulgaria, 1965) • Order of Georgi Dimitrov (People's Republic of Bulgaria, 1965) • Artur Becker Medal (German Democratic Republic, 1965) • Order of Karl Marx (German Democratic Republic, 1965) • Order of the Flag of the Republic of Hungary (1965) • Hero of Labor (Democratic Republic of Vietnam, 1966) • Order of Civil Merit, 1st class (Syria, 1966) • Order of Merit, 3rd class (Ukraine, 2011)

• Commander of the Order of Saint Anna III degree (2008), by Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia • Commander of the Order of Saint Anna II degree (2011), by Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia • Honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts