Alexei Leonov: the first human to walk in space

The first human in open space

Alexei Leonov was a Soviet cosmonaut who, on 18 March 1965, became the first person in the world to walk in space. For 12 minutes and 9 seconds he floated in the vacuum outside his spacecraft, connected to it only by a safety tether. This brief excursion opened a whole era — the era of humans working in open space.

Leonov was not only a pilot and cosmonaut but also an artist: he made the first work of art ever created in space.

From Siberia to the cosmonaut corps

Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov was born on 30 May 1934 in Siberia, the youngest of eight children. He became a military fighter pilot, and in 1960 he joined the first group of Soviet cosmonauts — together with Yuri Gagarin, with whom he was close friends.

The spacewalk: 18 March 1965

On 18 March 1965 Leonov and the mission commander, Pavel Belyayev, launched aboard Voskhod 2. On the second orbit Leonov climbed outside and, for the first time in history, found himself in open space — on a tether about five metres long.

But the return nearly became a tragedy. In the vacuum his "Berkut" spacesuit inflated so much that he could not squeeze back through the hatch. There was little time and his oxygen was running low. Leonov made a risky decision: he bled off some of the suit's pressure — and managed to get back inside. (Later this story was often retold even more dramatically than Leonov himself described in his first report right after the flight — but the danger was real.)

A night in the taiga

The ordeal did not end there. The automatic landing system failed, and they had to land manually. The craft overshot its intended spot by almost 1,200 kilometres and came down in dense taiga. Leonov and Belyayev had to spend a night in the snowy forest, with wolves around them — rescuers reached them only the next day, on 19 March.

The Moon that never was

Leonov made no secret of dreaming of more — of being the first man on the Moon. He was chosen for the Soviet lunar programme, but because of rocket failures it was cancelled, and the landing never took place.

Soyuz–Apollo

Leonov's second spaceflight was historic in a different way. In July 1975 he commanded the spacecraft Soyuz 19, which docked in orbit with the American Apollo. This was the first joint flight of the USSR and the USA — a symbol of détente at the height of the Cold War, a handshake of the two powers in space.

Artist and ambassador of peace

Leonov was twice Hero of the Soviet Union, and after leaving the corps he headed the Cosmonaut Training Center. All his life he painted — creating more than 200 works, often about space. His contemporaries remembered him as a warm, charming man and a wonderful storyteller.

He believed in space as a common cause of humanity. "There have never been frontiers between cosmonauts," he said. It is no coincidence that the writer Arthur C. Clarke named a spaceship in his novel "2010: Odyssey Two" the Alexei Leonov, and dedicated the book itself to Leonov and Sakharov.

Alexei Leonov died on 11 October 2019 at the age of 85. In 2017 a film about his feat, "The Age of Pioneers," was released.

Frequently asked questions

Who was the first person to walk in space? The Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov — on 18 March 1965.

How long did the first spacewalk last? 12 minutes and 9 seconds.

What went wrong? His spacesuit inflated in the vacuum, and Leonov barely got back into the craft by bleeding off pressure; and on landing the craft came down in the taiga almost 1,200 km off target.

Related

• Yuri Gagarin — Leonov's friend and the first human in space.
• Sergei Korolev — the Chief Designer who prepared these flights.
• Valentina Tereshkova — the first woman in space, from the same first cohort of the era.
• The Cold War — the confrontation amid which Soyuz and Apollo shook hands in orbit.

Sources

The facts in this article can be verified against authoritative sources:

• European Space Agency (ESA), "Alexei Leonov, the first spacewalker, passes away": https://www.esa.int/About_Us/50_years_of_ESA/Alexei_Leonov_the_first_spacewalker_passes_away
• Wikipedia, "Alexei Leonov": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Leonov
• Space.com, "Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, Who Was First to Walk in Space, Dies at 85": https://www.space.com/cosmonaut-alexei-leonov-first-spacewalker-dies-at-85.html
• Smithsonian Magazine, "Alexei Leonov's First Spacewalk Wasn't Quite as Dramatic as We Thought": https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/turns-out-alexei-leonovs-first-spacewalk-wasnt-quite-dramatic-we-thought-180974522/
• TIME, "First Spacewalk Nearly Ended in Tragedy for Alexei Leonov": https://time.com/5802128/alexei-leonov-spacewalk-obstacles/

Where the details are contested (how dramatic the spacesuit emergency was), we rely on the documents and Leonov's own first report.