The world-famous cosmonaut Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov was born in a small Siberian village on May 30, 1934 and became the ninth child in the family. His father was a very respected person in the village, so he was elected chairman of the village council. When the boy was thirteen years old, his entire family moved to the city of Kaliningrad in connection with the occupation of the head of the family. The young man became interested in aviation technology while studying at school. Then he gained basic knowledge in such disciplines as the theory of flight and the design of aircraft. After graduating from high school in 1953 with good grades, Leonov entered the Kremenchug Pilot School without any problems. In addition to her, he also received knowledge at a higher school, which was located in Chuguev and trained fighter pilots. In 1960, Alexei Arkhipovich, after going through a long and tough selection, entered the cosmonaut corps.
Conquest of outer space
March 1965 marks a special flight in the history of Soviet and world cosmonautics. Then cosmonaut Leonov was in the rolesecond pilot of the Voskhod-2 spacecraft (the first was P. I. Belyaev). During this flight, a man was in outer space for the first time. He spent 12 minutes and 9 seconds at a distance of five meters from the ship. Aleksei Arkhipovich Leonov is the cosmonaut who accomplished this, thereby laying the foundation for the newest round of human space activity. His career skyrocketed after that. During the period from 1967 to 1970, he even led a group that was preparing to fly to the moon.
The first Soviet-American flight
In the first months of 1973, the Soviet Academy of Sciences, together with NASA, began training personnel for the Soyuz and Apollo spacecraft. Applicants had to be well versed in space technology, know foreign languages, have high qualifications and professionalism. Cosmonaut Leonov was appointed commander of the domestic spacecraft. The joint flight, which lasted more than five days, aroused great interest around the world. During its conduction, for the first time, a Soviet spacecraft docked with an American one. In addition, the astronauts conducted many important biomedical, astrophysical and technological experiments.
Contribution to the development of world cosmonautics
Cosmonaut Leonov during his work made a huge contribution to the development of not only Soviet, but also world cosmonautics. In particular, he carried out a large number of experiments and studies. Among them, it should be noted the study of color and light visual characteristics after space flights, the developmenta space suit for working in the hydrosphere, the possibility of using the hydrosphere as an analogue of weightlessness. Moreover, he owns more than thirty speeches at various conferences and congresses. Alexei Leonov is a cosmonaut who has many state awards for his work. In 1965 and 1975 he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. One of the lunar craters bears his name. Between 1985 and 1999 he was one of the chairmen of the International Association of Space Flight Participants. He retired with the rank of Major General of Aviation. Now lives and works in Moscow.
