Alexei Leonov was born on May 30, 1934 in Listvyanka, West Siberian Krai, Russian SFSR, USSR. He is known for his work on Apollo 13: To the Edge and Back (1994), Bolshoe kosmicheskoe puteshestvie (1975) and Suit Up: 50 Years of Spacewalks (2015). He is married to Svetlana Pavlovna. They have two children.
[About the crisis during his first space walk:] There were many problems. One was impossible to test on Earth, namely, how would the space suit react in the vacuum of space? . . . I had to take a decision to lower the pressure inside the space suit, but by how much? Too much would have led to a boiling of blood in the body, which would have finished me off. But I had to do it. I didn't report this down to Earth. I knew the situation better than anyone else. [about the Apollo-Soyuz mission:]
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Fact
1
His wife Svetlana is a teacher, and they have two daughters, Viktoria and Oksana.
2
After serving as a cosmonaut, he became an investment banker.
3
Leonov was promoted to Major General following the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Later in his career he was appointed the Deputy Director of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, in charge of international and guest cosmonauts. As of June 1999, he was the Chief of the International Detachment, training guest cosmonauts for space travel. Editor, designer, and cartoonist for APOGEE, the formerly supersecret cosmonaut newsletter.
4
A self-taught artist, he has painted everything from stoic Russian churches to Siberian snow scenes and, of course, space art based on color sketches done aboard his two flights. After a joint exhibition with American space artists in Moscow, he led the Soviet space artists to the International Space Art Workshop held in Iceland the following year. Leonov's works have been displayed all over the former Soviet Union, and at the National Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC.
5
Upon return to Earth after the Voskhod mission, a rocket malfunction forced Leonov and his crewmate to land in the Ural Mountains amid deep snow, with wolves growling and scratching at Voskhod's partly open hatch. They remained all night, surrounded by wolves, until a rescue crew found them the next day.
6
Leonov survived a premature death five times. (1) He was riding with other cosmonauts in front of a car carrying Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev when a young officer started firing two guns wildly in an assassination attempt. The driver was killed, but Leonov managed to crouch behind the seat. (2) During that first space walk in 1965, his spacesuit expanded so much that he could not fit back into the Voskhod 2 capsule. Quick thinking saved him. (3) During the same mission, the ship did not rotate normally to spread the sun's warmth across the station. As a result, there was a failure in the life-support systems and air started leaking out of the station. Oxygen grew to critical levels, and the slightest spark would have killed everyone. (4) Leonov was due to fly in 1971 on Salyut 1, the first space station put into orbit, but officials changed the entire crew 11 hours before the flight because of concerns for cosmonaut Valerii Kubasov's health. The new crew set a record of 23 days in orbit, but a leak in the capsule killed the three men as they returned to Earth. Had he been in the mission, he would have died. (5) Once while driving, his car skidded and plunged into a deep ice-covered lake. Leonov heroically pulled his wife and driver to safety. Leonov attributes his survival of all of these crises to God, though there is no doubt that his intelligence and training certainly helped!
7
While in space, Leonov sketched pictures, including one of American astronaut Thomas P. Stafford, using a set of colored pencils he attached to his wrist with a makeshift bracelet.
8
On July 15, 1975, Leonov was commander of the Russian flight in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first linking of Soviet and American spacecraft. Leonov trained in Houston, where he learned to speak English fluently and made friends with everyone with his quick wit, humor, and charm. The Soyuz and Apollo crafts separated after approximately two days. The Soyuz craft was recovered on July 21, fewer than 10 kilometers away from its target point.
9
Leonov was to be the Commander of the first Soviet Moon mission, which was cancelled when Apollo 11 landed on the Moon in 1969.
10
The first man to "walk" in space on March 18, 1965, when he floated outside the spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 10 minutes, secured to the spacecraft by only a safety line. He pushed away from the craft and let himself drift 17.5 feet away before reeling himself back in. There were tense moments during the first of his two extravehicular activities when Leonov found his spacesuit too rigid to reenter the airlock. He bled air out of his suit and was able to fit back through the inflatable airlock capsule.
11
Leonov was a fighter pilot before becoming a cosmonaut. He graduated with honors from Chuguyev Higher Air Force School in 1957. He then joined the Soviet Air Force units as a fighter pilot, becoming an expert parachutist and instructor of military air forces for paratroop training.
12
When the call came for cosmonaut candidates in 1959, Leonov was picked as one of the first 20 cosmonauts. He spent over 7 days in space aboard 2 spaceflights. Leonov was the eleventh cosmonaut in Soviet space history and the fifteenth person in space.
Miscellaneous
Title
Year
Status
Character
Bolshoe kosmicheskoe puteshestvie
1975
main consultant - as Alexei Leonov
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
La fin des astronautes?
2012
TV Movie documentary
Himself (as Alexei Leonov)
Talk im Hangar-7
2010
TV Series
Himself
American Experience
2005
TV Series documentary
Himself - Soviet Cosmonaut
The Planets
1999
TV Mini-Series documentary
Himself - Cosmonaut
Ciezar niewazkosci
1997
TV Movie documentary
Himself (as Aleksiej Leonow)
Network First
1994
TV Series documentary
Himself - Cosmonaut
Apollo 13: To the Edge and Back
1994
TV Movie documentary
Himself (as Alexei Leonov)
Our Planet Earth
1991
Documentary short
Himself (as Alexei Leonov)
The Mike Douglas Show
1976
TV Series
Himself - General / Cosmonaut
Bolshoe kosmicheskoe puteshestvie
1975
Himself (as Alexei Leonov)
Suit Up: 50 Years of Spacewalks
2015
Short
Himself (as Alexei Leonov)
Alexei Leonov. Pryzhok v kosmos
2014
TV Movie documentary
Himself
Touch the Sky
2012
Documentary
Himself
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
Flat Earth & Revelation 10
2016
TV Series
Himself
The Sixties
2014
TV Mini-Series documentary
Himself - Soviet Cosmonaut
Il silenzio di Pelesjan
2011
Documentary
Himself (uncredited)
Ancient Aliens
2010
TV Series documentary
Himself - Spacewalk 1965
Glory to the Conquerors of Space
2008
Short
Himself (as Alexei Leonov)
Mars Rising
2007
TV Series documentary
Himself
Tank on the Moon
2007
TV Movie documentary
Himself - cosmonaut (as Alexei Leonov)
Failure Is Not an Option
2003
TV Movie documentary
Himself (as Alexei Leonov)
From the Earth to the Moon
1998
TV Mini-Series
Himself (first to walk in space) (uncredited)
Memories of 1970-1991
1991
TV Series documentary
Himself
Known for movies
Touch the Sky (2012) as Himself
Ciezar niewazkosci (1997) as Himself
Apollo 13: To the Edge and Back (1994) as Himself
Bolshoe kosmicheskoe puteshestvie (1975) as Miscellaneous Crew
$1.1 Million
