Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov was born on 30th May 1934 in the Listvyanka, West Siberian Krai, USSR, and he is now retired. A Russian cosmonaut, Alexey was the first human to exit a spacecraft for a 12-minute space walk. He was tied to the spacecraft by a 5.35-metre tether. Alexey commanded the Soviet half of the Apollo-Soyuz mission which was the first joint space mission between the Soviet Union and the United States. Alexey is an accomplished artist and his artistic work has been published. He took coloured pencils and paper into space where he sketched the Earth and drew the portraits of the Apollo crew.
Do you know: Alexey’s spacesuit had inflated in the vacuum of space so much that he could not re-enter the capsule and was barely able to get back inside.
