On this day in 1965: Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first human to walk in space

On this day in 1965: Today is the anniversary of the historic first spacewalk. On 18 March 1965, Russian cosmonaut Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov became the first human to perform a spacewalk. This cosmonaut created history at the age of just 30. He also had plans to go to the moon and if things had gone according to plan, he would have been the first person to step on the moon.

He made history, and decades and years after his achievement, Leonov is still remembered for his courage. He was aboard the Russian spacecraft Voskhod 2, and floated freely for 12 minutes and 9 seconds before returning to his capsule.

Alexey Leonov was one of 20 Soviet Air Force pilots selected into the first cosmonaut group in 1960. He started his training for the space walk in 1963. He was to go on the Vostok 1 mission, but it was cancelled, and the historic event took place on the Voskhod 2 flight.

However, it was not all smooth sailing as his spacesuit inflated after only eight minutes and his spacewalk took a deadly turn. Somehow, he managed to get back into the spacecraft, reportedly sweating so much that Leonov lost about 6 kilograms that day.

Time photographer Marco Grob met Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov in 2015 and when asked about his experience, he said, “I don’t remember anything as I remember the sound – this remarkable silence.”

He said that after closing his eyes, he saw “the whole Black Sea, the Crimean peninsula.” It’s not a map, I’ve seen it. I can now take a pencil and draw it because I remembered it for the rest of my life. I looked up and there was the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Kaliningrad. I spent my youth in the Bay of Kaliningrad. This was very unusual.

Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov passed away in Moscow, Russia on October 11, 2019 after a prolonged illness.

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