Where is cosmonaut Leonov now? Cosmonaut Leonov: biography and interesting facts from life. Out in outer space

Alexey Leonov is a unique personality. Double Hero Soviet Union, Soviet cosmonaut number 11, he deserves to be made a feature film about him. Finally, it happened - in the capital's cinema center "October" the premiere of the film "The Time of the First" by Dmitry Kiselev and Timur Bekmabetov took place, which deals with the legendary flight of Alexei Leonov. This picture will also be shown in Shchelkovo near Moscow at the opening Star Art Festival, which is conducted by pianist and teacher Yuri Rozum.

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“When the director offered to become the chief consultant in a film about myself, I gladly agreed,” Alexey Arkhipovich admitted to a correspondent website before the movie premiere. – There were just too many lies and inventions about that memorable flight half a century ago. They wrote that our parachute allegedly did not open, that we got lost in the taiga forest, that we were resting at the dacha of the secretary of the Perm regional committee. So I wanted to tell you how things really were."

“I corrected the entire script from beginning to end,” Leonov assures. “Then I saw the film in draft form, without framing, so to speak, without music. And again I forced the director to redo some scenes. Now I’m sitting and worrying whether he corrected one moment in the episode with Sergei Korolev, as I asked. I'll tell you honestly: when I first saw "The Time of the First", I myself was frightened of what I had to endure, and said to Zhenya (Evgeny Mironov - the performer of the role of Leonov and the producer of the film. - Approx. Ed.): "Give me a gun!"

“In general, the question arose for a long time whether we should fly or not. But we could not concede to America the right to be the first. Therefore, we begged the Queen not to cancel the flight. They told him: “Sergey Pavlovich, we know the ship from the drawings, we only worked out one emergency situation from above three thousand!" It was an experimental ship, no one knew exactly what could happen, and thank God that we went through all these accidents on earth. But something happened in orbit that was not described in the documentation. It was scary, to be honest with you ".

Alexey Leonov came to the premiere of the film not only with his wife Svetlana Pavlovna, but also with Tatyana Filippovna Belyaeva, the widow of cosmonaut Pavel Belyaev. He was the commander of the Vostok-2 ship, with which Leonov flew on March 18-19, 1965. Belyaev died in 1970. And since then, Alexei Arkhipovich has been taking care of his beloved woman, helping him. "Now I have two wives," he says jokingly.

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Leonov Alexey Arkhipovich (1934- gg.)

Short biography:

USSR cosmonaut:№11;

Astronaut of the world:№15;

Number of flights: 2;

Duration: 7 days 00 hours 33 minutes 08 seconds;

Number of spacewalks: 1;

Alexey Leonov- The 11th Soviet cosmonaut, twice Hero of the USSR: the first man in outer space, biography, photos, years of life, personal life, significant dates.

He is the number 11 cosmonaut in the USSR and the 15th cosmonaut in the world. Made 2 flights. In length, the flight was more than 7 days. He became the first astronaut in the world to go into outer space. This exit lasted 23 minutes and 41 seconds. He is a pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR, the first set of the Air Force.

Leonov Alexey Arkhipovich was born in 1934 on May 30, in the Kemerovo region, the village of Listvyanka of the RSFSR.

He graduated from 10 classes in 1953, at the Kaliningrad School No. 21. After that, he entered the Military Aviation School for Primary Pilot Training in Kremenchug, which he successfully completed in 1955. In 1957, he became a graduate of the aviation school in Chuguev.

He acquired the specialization "pilot-engineer-cosmonaut" at the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy. The study took place from 1961 to 1968. He has a Ph.D. in technical sciences, on which he defended his thesis in 1981.

Space

In 1960, he became a student in the team of cosmonauts of the Air Force Central Training Center. After that, from 1960 to 1961, he underwent space training, and on April 3 of the same year, he successfully passed the exams.

In 1963, he was trained for the position of co-pilot of the chief crew of the Voskhod-2 spacecraft. This training included a spacewalk program with Pavel Belyaev as a partner. In the course of training, he made 12 flights on the TU-104LL, with the development of spacewalks, on the Voskhod model, as well as 6 flights on the Il-14 for testing with the SMK-3.

The first flight

In 1965, from March 18 to March 19, on the spacecraft "Voskhod-2" as a co-pilot, he flew with commander Belyaev. At the time of this flight, he carried out a spacewalk, and it lasted 23 minutes 41 seconds. When exiting, the astronaut moved away from the ship, 5.35 meters, and was at that distance for 12 minutes 9 seconds. He had the call sign "Almaz-2".

When landing on the ground, an emergency situation occurred, with the failure of the control system in automatic mode. Belyaev, took control in manual mode, and landed in the area that was not included in the landing calculations. The astronauts landed in the taiga, between two settlements, and at a distance of 180 km from Perm. Due to terrible weather conditions and deep snow, the crew was evacuated only 48 hours later, although they were discovered four hours later after landing.

Second flight

The second flight was made from July 15 to July 21, 1975, already in the role of commander of the Soyuz-19 spacecraft, with cosmonaut Valery Kubasov.

In this flight, the Apollo spacecraft (USA) and the Soviet Soyuz-19 docked. The flight took 5 days 22 hours 30 minutes 51 seconds. Callsign "Soyuz-1".

Personal life

The cosmonaut's father was Arkhip Alekseevich Leonov (1893-1981), a railway electrician by profession. He had experience in animal husbandry. He fell under the machine of repression.

Mom was a housewife, her name was Evdokia Minaevna Leonova (1895-1967).

Alexei Arkhipovich has a wife and two children. The wife's name is Leonova Svetlana Pavlovna. Born in 1940. She worked in the editorial department at the CPC, is now retired.

The eldest daughter of the cosmonaut, died in 1996 as a result of a serious illness, her name was Leonova Viktoria Alekseevna.

The youngest daughter's name is Leonova Oksana Alekseevna, she was born in 1967, she works as a translator.

Enthusiasm

He is fond of painting with a space theme.

3689

On April 12, 1961, the name of Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin became known to the whole world. However, he did not have to enjoy popularity for a long time. After 7 years, Yuri Gagarin crashed during a normal flight in a training fighter ...

The official version of the death of the people's favorite turned out to be incredibly stingy with information. It was only reported that due to the air situation that had changed during the flight (details were not specified), the crew made a sharp maneuver and fell into a tailspin ...

How it was

Yuri Gagarin, together with his instructor Vladimir Seregin, performed a routine test flight on a training modification of the MiG-15 aircraft. Already 13 minutes after departure, Gagarin reported to the ground that the flight mission had been completed and requested permission to return to base. After that, communication with the crew was cut off ...

The alarm was sounded only after it became clear that the aircraft had exhausted its entire fuel supply. The crash site was found 3 hours after the start of the search operation. And the public learned about the tragedy at all two days later.

The fact that the pilots did not say a word about the malfunction of the equipment or other abnormal incidents gives a special mystery to what happened. They didn't even sound the alarm!

Disaster investigation

To investigate the causes of the disaster, a special state commission was created, which consisted of three independent subgroups at once. In addition, the KGB commission worked separately to find out whether the catastrophe was the result of a conspiracy, a terrorist attack, or malicious intent.

Despite the fact that so many people were involved in the investigation, no one heard a clear explanation for the disaster!

It was only clear that the plane suddenly fell into a tailspin, and the crew tried to rectify the situation to the last. Some 200 meters were not enough for Gagarin and Seregin to stabilize the car and escape ...

What did the commission hide?

The conclusions of the state commission were declassified only on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Gagarin's flight into space. They could not give an unambiguous answer about the cause of the tragedy, but they shed light on a number of serious violations that accompanied the flight.

So, Gagarin's instructor, Vladimir Seregin, was almost half an hour late to the scheduled start, which is why the flight did not go according to schedule. The onboard barospeedograph, which can be called an analogue of a black box, was not loaded with paper, and the flight was not actually controlled from the ground ... This all speaks of the extremely negligent attitude of all personnel!

By the way, parachute packs were also found among the remains at the crash site, but there were no parachutes in them! However, later it turned out that after the accident they were stolen by men from a neighboring village.


Version by Alexei Leonov

Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov put forward another version of what happened. Moreover, he is so sure of his rightness that he boldly calls this hypothesis the real reason death of Gagarin!

In his opinion, the MiG-15 of Gagarin and Seryogin got into a vortex wake from a jet aircraft that passed not far away. Indeed, on the day of the tragedy, two Su-15s took off from the airfield in Ramenskoye.

However, the flight task of the Sushki crew was very different. They had to fly at an altitude of over 10 kilometers, and Gagarin's plane - at an altitude of about 4 kilometers. In addition, the entries in the flight sheets indicate that at the time of the tragedy, both Su-15s were at the airfield.

Specialist Versions

Most experts agreed that the stalling of the aircraft into a tailspin was due to a sharp maneuver performed by the crew. But what could provoke experienced pilots to such an action?

Indeed, about a dozen probes were found near the accident site. However, the investigation did not provide any information about the search for that very probe. But it is easy to check this version: the place where they were launched from, the time, the rate of ascent and other data were known. However, no one has done this...

Conspiracy theories

Finally, a little conspiracy. The hypothesis of the "Soviet lunar conspiracy" received the greatest resonance among the alternative versions. Allegedly, the USSR was desperately trying to maintain its superiority in the space race and threw all its strength into landing on the moon before the Americans.

According to this version, Gagarin crashed a few days earlier while flying on the new spacecraft "Zond-4" of the Soviet lunar flyby program L1. Naturally, no one wanted to advertise the failure. All materials were classified, staging the death of an astronaut during a training flight.

Also very popular is the version that Gagarin had a conflict with the top leadership of the country. Party bosses did not tolerate the presumptuous astronaut and ordered the special services to remove the objectionable person.

Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov. Born on May 30, 1934 in the village of Listvyanka, Tisulsky District, West Siberian Territory (now in the Kemerovo Region) - died on October 11, 2019 in Moscow. Soviet cosmonaut number 11, the first person to go into outer space. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union (1965, 1975). Laureate of the State Prize of the USSR (1981).

Alexei Leonov was born on May 30, 1934 in the village of Listvyanka, Tisulsky District, West Siberian Territory (now in the Kemerovo Region).

By nationality - Russian.

The family had many children. Alexey was the eighth child in the family.

Father - Arkhip Alekseevich Leonov (1892-1981), originally from the Oryol province, a railway electrician, worked in the mines of Donbass, studied as a veterinarian and livestock specialist. In the mid-1930s, due to a conflict with the chairman of the collective farm, he was repressed, after which the family was kicked out of the house, and the neighbors were allowed to plunder the property of "enemies of the people." Father served two years - 1936-1938. They imprisoned him without trial or investigation for a conflict with the chairman of the collective farm. In 1939, he was rehabilitated - his former colleague in the division of the Red Latvian Riflemen helped.

Mother - Evdokia Minaevna Leonova (nee Sotnikova; 1895-1967), housewife.

Grandfather - Minai Yakovlevich, was a steam boiler mechanic in Rostov, later exiled to Siberia for participating in the revolutionary events of 1905.

Sister - Alexandra Arkhipovna Khadanovich (born 1916), housewife.

Sister - Lyubov Arkhipovna Leonova (born 1919), engineer.

Sister - Raisa Arkhipovna Ganicheva (1921-2008), military representative.

Sister - Nina Arkhipovna Novikova (born 1922), senior railroad merchandiser.

Sister - Nadezhda Arkhipovna Kuzmenko (1924-2007), merchandiser.

Brother - Pyotr Arkhipovich Leonov (born 1928), a toolmaker at a shipyard.

Sister - Antonina Arkhipovna Leonova (born 1930).

Sister - Vera Arkhipovna Leonova (deceased).

Brother - Boris Arkhipovich Leonov (born 1937), ichthyologist.

For some time the family lived in Kemerovo, where they lived in a barrack. He studied at Kemerovo schools No. 35 and No. 37.

In 1947, the family moved to the new place of work of his father in the city of Kaliningrad, where his relatives still live.

From an early age he was excellent at drawing. I started with chalk and charcoal drawings. He collected reproductions of paintings by great masters. Yard boys became the first connoisseurs of his work, trusting him to apply the contours of future tattoos. He recalled: "Whoever wanted to prick an eagle, a coat of arms or a battle scene turned to me - these drawings were especially successful for me." Designed wall newspapers at school.

In 1953 he graduated high school No. 21 Kaliningrad. I wanted to enter the Riga Academy of Arts. He was not accepted, although they liked the pictures. The reason for the refusal was in housing: there was nothing for a non-resident to rent a corner, and a hostel was provided only to senior students.

In 1955 he graduated from the 10th Military Aviation School for Initial Pilot Training in Kremenchug, where he entered the Komsomol recruitment.

In 1957 he graduated from the Chuguev Military Aviation Pilot School (VAUL) and joined the CPSU.

In 1960 he was enrolled in the first detachment of Soviet cosmonauts.

On March 18-19, 1965, together with Pavel Belyaev, he flew into space as a co-pilot on the Voskhod-2 spacecraft. During this flight, Alexei Leonov made the first spacewalk in the history of astronautics lasting 12 minutes 9 seconds. During the exit, he showed exceptional courage, especially in an emergency situation, when a swollen space suit prevented him from returning to the spacecraft. Leonov managed to enter the gateway only by relieving excessive pressure from the spacesuit, while he climbed into the hatch of the ship not with his feet, but with his head forward, which was forbidden by the instructions.

Alexey Leonov told about his feelings in outer space: “When I floated out of the airlock into space, a blinding stream of light hit my eyes, just like a welding fire. I had to urgently lower the filter. The sky was both black and bright at the same time. Infinity - nothing else around. And somewhere far, far below the blue Earth. You could see that it was round. I look up: our huge ship is slowly rotating above me, as if it is larger than the planet. I tear off one hand from the handrail, the other, I swim away. I am held by a strong five-meter halyard. I hear in my headphones the voices of those watching me with the help of television cameras from the Earth: “Look, you’re alive ...” Below me, I see the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus and no less joyfully report: “The weather is good in Sochi.” “We know without you. Carry out the task, ”they answered me shortly. Worried, did not want to be distracted. The earth slowly floated, rotated under me, like a big and beautiful ... globe. I saw Novorossiysk and Tsemesskaya bay. The huge black fields of the Kuban, the silver ribbon of the Volga, the dark green of the taiga, and the Ob have just as slowly floated and gone on the curvature of the horizon. The ship and I slowly rotated along the longitudinal axis, and the Earth turned out to be either below or above. When the Yenisei turned under us (12 minutes had passed since the beginning of my exit), a command was received to return to the ship.

Before landing, the automatic orientation system failed. Belyaev manually oriented the ship and turned on the brake engine. As a result, Voskhod landed in an off-design area 180 km north of the city of Perm, 70 km west of the cities of Berezniki, Solikamsk and Usolye, Perm Region (59.605N, 55.463E).

In the TASS report, this was called "landing in a "reserve area"", which in fact was a remote Permian taiga. After landing, the huge canopy of the parachute, stuck on two tall fir trees, fluttered in the wind. Soon an IL-14 was already circling above them. Radio contact was immediately established from the aircraft and the astronauts were informed that they had been found and help would be sent soon. A civilian Mi-1 was raised from the Perm airfield. From this helicopter, two foresters were lowered into the landing area, who at 5 p.m. on March 19, having made their way through the taiga for about 4 kilometers, were already next to the heroes. In the landing area, the cosmonauts were met by workers from the forest site and employees of the Berezniki police department.

The next morning, March 20, 3 helicopters arrived at the landing site. They could not sit down, but dropped everything they needed. To take out the astronauts, the plot, on which the foresters were originally landed, was cleared for a helicopter landing. A lot of trees had to be cut down. And so, on March 21, along the rolled track, the cosmonauts, with the help of their escorts, reached the plot where the helicopter was waiting for them. On the square. Lenin in Berezniki, a spontaneous rally of residents gathered - there was a rumor that P. Belyaev and A. Leonov would be taken around the city before being sent to Perm. But the astronauts were sent to the regional center directly from the landing site. The descent vehicle was evacuated on March 22.

The flight duration was 1 day 2 hours 2 minutes 17 seconds.

For the successful implementation of the flight and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on March 23, 1965 with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

In 1965-1969, Leonov was part of a group of Soviet cosmonauts who were preparing under the Soviet programs for flying around the moon L1 / Zond and landing L3 on it.

The flight of the manned spacecraft "Zond-7" under the lunar flyby program was tentatively scheduled for December 8, 1968. Leonov was part of the second crew. But the flight was canceled, despite the fact that the crews wrote a statement to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU with a request to be allowed to immediately fly to the Moon to ensure the priority of the USSR (the Americans planned a similar manned flight for December 21-27, 1968). The fact is that the previous unmanned flights of the Zond (L1) ships were completely or partially unsuccessful due to the shortcomings of the ship itself - the celestial navigation system, the controlled descent system, the main and backup parachute systems. The priority remained with the United States - Apollo 8 made a manned flight around the Moon as scheduled.

According to preliminary appointments, Leonov was also the main of two candidates (commander of the main crew (together with O. G. Makarov) to become (according to the schedule of the Soviet program from 1967) in September 1968 the first person who was to visit the surface Moon under the Soviet lunar program, which was also canceled due to the loss of the USSR in the "moon race" after the successful landing of Americans on the moon on Apollo 11 in July 1969.

In 1968 he graduated from the N.E. Zhukovsky, Faculty of Engineering.

On January 22, 1969, he was in a car fired upon by officer Viktor Ilyin during an attempt on. Aleksey Leonov himself recalled: “We were driving through the Borovitsky Gates to the Kremlin, at that time a policeman jumped out of the crowd through the fence and began to shoot with two pistols. The first bullet flew into the forehead of the car, the glass flew into the Chekist, cut his face. The second bullet hit the driver in the neck. I turned my head and another bullet flew right in front of my face. If I hadn't turned, the bullet would have been in my temple. The third bullet hit the overcoat, the fourth under the stomach, the fifth passed from the side of the back. The seriously injured driver let off the gas, and the car began to back away. Georgy Timofeevich Beregovoy leaned over and pulled the handbrake. Of the 16 bullets fired by the attacker, 14 hit the car, he wounded the motorcyclist with one, and the sentry with another. The only victim of that unsuccessful attempt was the driver Ilya Zharkov. The attacker Ilyin was detained on the spot by the KGB, after which the cosmonauts nevertheless ended up in the Kremlin. “There was a whisper in the hall in the Kremlin. Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was upturned. He came up to me and said – don’t worry, they didn’t shoot at you, but at me,” said Alexei Leonov.

In 1971 he was the commander of the main crew of the Soyuz-11 (together with V. N. Kubasov and P. I. Kolodin). Shortly before the start, the medical board gave a challenge to Kubasov, the crew was changed. Doubles flew - G. T. Dobrovolsky, V. N. Volkov and V. I. Patsaev, who died during the landing of the descent vehicle. Leonov said: “I was the crew commander, and in 11 hours we were replaced. Instead of me, Dobrovolsky flew as commander, Volkov and Patsaev with him. Such is life... I strongly believe in destiny. The biggest victory is the victory over yourself. There is a guardian angel or someone else, and such cases confirm this over and over again.

In 1975 (July 15-21), together with V. N. Kubasov, he made the second flight into space as the commander of the Soyuz-19 spacecraft under the ASTP program (the Soyuz-Apollo program). Flight duration - 5 days 22 hours 30 minutes 51 seconds. Then, for the first time in the world, the ships of two different countries were docked.

For the successful implementation of the flight and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, Major General of Aviation A. A. Leonov was awarded the second Gold Star medal and the Order of Lenin on July 22, 1975.

In 1970-1991 - Deputy Head of the Cosmonaut Training Center.

In 1981 he completed postgraduate studies at the Air Force Engineering Academy named after N. E. Zhukovsky. Candidate of Technical Sciences.

He has 4 inventions and more than 10 scientific papers.

In March 1992, Aviation Major General Alexei Leonov retired.

Alexei Leonov, in collaboration with science fiction artist Andrei Sokolov, created a number of postage stamps of the USSR on space theme. The debut of the tandem in philately took place in March 1967, when the artists completed a series of three stamps dedicated to Cosmonautics Day. In October of the same year, a series of five stamps "Space Fantasy" dedicated to the exploration of the Universe was released.

The next series of 6 stamps of the Leonov-Sokolov tandem came out in September 1972 on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the space age.

On the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the first human spacewalk, a USSR postal block was issued with a drawing by Alexei Leonov and a facsimile of his signature.

In 1992-1993, he was the director of space programs at Chetek.

He received recognition as an artist (he wrote many works together with the artist Sokolov), his works are widely exhibited and published.

In the last year of his life, he was sick a lot, he was treated in a medical institution. Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov died on October 11, 2019 in the intensive care unit of the Burdenko Hospital. The cause of death was acute heart failure.

The growth of Alexei Leonov: 163 centimeters

Personal life of Alexei Leonov:

Wife - Svetlana Pavlovna Leonova (nee - Datsenko; born in 1940), at the time of her acquaintance she worked at KrAZ. We met in 1957 on the street. As Leonov said, he was walking with friends after celebrating his birthday and "came across a girl, Sveta, with big sad eyes." The next day, in his flight uniform, he sought her out. The girl invited him to enter the house. Three days later, he was supposed to leave for Germany for practice, so his lover had practically no time to think. They got married quickly.

The marriage produced two daughters.

The eldest daughter is Victoria Alekseevna Leonova (04/21/1961 - July 1996), an employee of the Sovfracht Main Directorate of the USSR Ministry of the Navy. She died due to viral hepatitis. According to Leonov, the cause of death was the error of doctors.

The youngest daughter, Oksana Alekseevna Leonova (born 1967), graduated from the Military Institute of Foreign Languages. From 1992 to 2000 - President of the Alfa Capital Fund. Since 2000 - Vice President of Alfa-Bank.

Filmography of Alexei Leonov:

1965 - New Year's calendar
1965 - At the first hour - a guest of "Blue Light"
1974 - Big space trip - episode
1979 - Sports of the Land of the Soviets (documentary)
1980 - Orion's Loop - opening remarks
1986 - Flight and feat continuing (documentary)
2005 - Hero of the Soviet people. Pavel Kadochnikov (documentary)
2009 - Georgy Zhzhonov. Agent of Hope (documentary)
2009 - Boris Chertok. Shot in the Universe (documentary)
2010 - Anatoly Kuznetsov. Before and after Sukhov (documentary)
2012 - Eduard Rozovsky. Master of Light (documentary)

Scripts by Alexei Leonov:

1971 - A story about my friend (documentary)
1980 - Orion's Loop

Bibliography of Alexei Leonov:

1968 - Perception of space and time in space
1971 - Psychological features of the activity of astronauts
1975 - Psychological problems of interplanetary flight
1977 - Solar wind
1980 - I go out into space
1981 - Life among the stars
2004 - Earth and space painting
2017 - Time of the first

Awards and titles of Alexei Leonov:

Twice Hero of the Soviet Union (March 23, 1965, July 22, 1975);
. Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree (May 22, 2014) - for labor achievements, significant contribution to socio-economic development Russian Federation, merits in space exploration, the humanitarian sphere, strengthening the rule of law, active legislative and social activities, many years of conscientious work;
. Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" IV degree (March 2, 2000) - for great services to the state in the development of domestic manned cosmonautics;
. Order of Friendship (April 12, 2011) - for a great contribution to the development of domestic manned cosmonautics and many years of fruitful social activity;
. Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation named after Yu. A. Gagarin in the field of space activities (2011) - for the development of domestic manned cosmonautics, personal participation in the implementation of the first manned flights, development international cooperation in the field of space activities, popularization of achievements national cosmonautics;
. two orders of Lenin;
. Order of the Red Star;
. Order "For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR" III degree;
. medals;
. Pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR (1966);
. Hero of Socialist Labor NRB (NRB, 1965);
. Order of Georgy Dimitrov;
. Order of Karl Marx (GDR, 1966);
. A. Becker medal;
. Hero of Labor of Vietnam (DRV, 1966);
. Order of the State Banner of Hungary (Hungary, 1966);
. Order "For Distinction" I degree (Syria, 1966);
. gold medal "For military valor" (Italy, 1967);
. Order of the Red Banner (MPR);
. Order of Merit, III degree (Ukraine, April 12, 2011) - for a significant personal contribution to the development of the rocket and space industry, achievements in the creation and implementation of space systems and technologies, high professional skills;
. medal "For Strengthening Friendship in Arms" 1st class;
. Badge of Honor "For Merit to the Smolensk Region" (March 2011);
. Honorary title "Honorary Citizen of the Moscow Region" (October 2014);
. Title "Honorary Citizen of the Kaliningrad Region" (July 2015);
. Title "Honorary Citizen of the Vladimir Region" (March 2016);
. Medal of Alexei Leonov No. 001 (September 1, 2014);
. The title of "Honorary Citizen of Kemerovo" (April 12, 1967);
. Ludwig Nobel Prize (2007);
. Order of St. Constantine the Great (Union of Cavaliers of the Golden Order of St. Constantine the Great);
. Order of the "Golden Star" (Foundation of Heroes of the Soviet Union and Heroes of the Russian Federation together with the organizing committee of the International Forum "Potential of the Nation");
. Order "Pride of Russia" (Charity Foundation "Pride of the Fatherland", 2007);
. National Prize "For the Glory of the Fatherland" in the category "Glory to Russia" (International Academy of Social Sciences and International Academy of Patronage, 2008);
. Order "To the Glory of the Fatherland" II degree (2008);
. Imperial and Royal Order of St. Stanislaus, I degree (2014);
. State Prize of the USSR (1981) (together with A. V. Filipchenko);
. Lenin Komsomol Prize (1979) - for the book-album "Man and the Universe" (together with A. K. Sokolov);
. Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1965);
. honorary citizen of the cities: Belgorod, Berezniki, Vladimir, Vologda, Kaliningrad, Kaluga, Kemerovo, Nalchik, Perm, Cherepovets; Arkalyk (Kazakhstan); Kremenchug, Chuguev (Ukraine), Veliko Tarnovo, Vidin, Svishtov (Bulgaria), Usti nad Labem (Czech Republic), San Antonio (Chile);
. premium edged weapons - personalized officer's dagger "Alexey Leonov";
. Commander of the Order of St. Anne III degree from the head of the Russian Imperial House Maria Vladimirovna Romanova (2008);
. Commander of the Order of St. Anne II degree from the head of the Russian Imperial House Maria Vladimirovna Romanova (2011);
. honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts;
. "Person of the Year-2013" (Russian Biographical Institute and Institute economic strategies) (year 2013).

S.P. Korolev was not only a brilliant designer of spaceships, but also a wonderful psychologist. Surprisingly correct was the choice of the first cosmonaut. And the artist, Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov, must have been the first to go into space.

In 1960 A.A. Leonov was enrolled in the first detachment of Soviet cosmonauts. On March 18-19, 1965, together with Pavel Belyaev, he flew into space as a co-pilot on the Voskhod-2 spacecraft. During this flight, Leonov made the first spacewalk in the history of astronautics duration 12 minutes 9 seconds. The purpose of the spacewalk was to study the possibility of a person staying and working in outer space, as well as testing the Berkut spacesuit. During the exit, A. Leonov showed exceptional courage, especially in an emergency situation, when a swollen space suit prevented the astronaut from returning to the spacecraft. Leonov managed to enter the lock only by relieving excessive pressure from the spacesuit, while he climbed into the hatch of the ship not with his feet, but with his head forward, which was forbidden by the instructions. But let's better listen to Leonov himself: “When they created a ship for spacewalks, they had to solve many problems, one of which was related to the size of the hatch. In order for the lid to open inward completely, the lodgement would have to be cut. Then I would not fit in it in the shoulders. And I agreed to reduce the diameter of the hatch. Thus, there was a gap of 20 mm from each shoulder between the suit and the edge of the hatch.

On Earth, we carried out tests in a pressure chamber with a vacuum corresponding to an altitude of 60 km ... In reality, when I went into outer space, it turned out a little differently. The pressure in the suit is about 600 mm, and outside - 10 - 9; such conditions on Earth could not be simulated. In the vacuum of space, the spacesuit swelled, neither the stiffening ribs nor the dense fabric could withstand it. Of course, I assumed that this would happen, but I did not think that it would be so strong. I tightened all the straps, but the suit was so swollen that my hands came out of the gloves when I grabbed the rails, and my legs out of my boots. In this state, of course, I could not squeeze into the airlock hatch. A critical situation arose, and there was no time to consult with the Earth. As long as I report to them... as long as they consult... And who would take responsibility? Only Pasha Belyaev saw this, but he could not help. And then I, violating all the instructions and not informing the Earth, switch to a pressure of 0.27 atmospheres. This is the second mode of operation of the spacesuit. If by that time nitrogen had not been washed out of my blood, then nitrogen would have boiled - and that's it ... death. I figured that I had been under pure oxygen for an hour and there should not be any boiling. After I switched to the second mode, everything “sat down” to its place.

Nervous, he put a movie camera into the airlock and, violating the instructions, went into the airlock not with his feet, but with his head forward. Grabbing the handrail, I pushed myself forward. Then I closed the outer hatch and began to turn around, since you still need to enter the ship with your feet. Otherwise, I would not have been able to, because the lid, which opens inward, ate 30% of the volume of the cabin. Therefore, I had to turn around (the inner diameter of the airlock is 1 meter, the width of the spacesuit at the shoulders is 68 cm). Here was the biggest load, my pulse reached 190. I still managed to roll over and enter the ship with my feet, as expected, but I had such a heat stroke that, violating the instructions and not checking the tightness, I opened the helmet, not closing the hatch behind him. I wipe my eyes with a glove, but I can’t wipe it off, as if someone is pouring on my head. Then I had only 60 liters of oxygen for breathing and ventilation, and now Orlan has 360 liters ... I was the first in history to go out and immediately move 5 meters away. Nobody else did this. But it was necessary to work with this halyard, to put it on hooks so that it would not hang out. There was a huge amount of physical activity.

The only thing I didn't do on the way out was I couldn't take a picture of the ship from the side. I had a miniature Ajax camera that could shoot through a button. It was given to us with the personal permission of the KGB chairman. This camera was remotely controlled by a cable; due to the deformation of the suit, I could not reach it. But I did filming (3 minutes with the C-97 camera), and two television cameras constantly watched me from the ship, but they did not have a high resolution. Based on these materials, they later made a very interesting film.

But the worst thing was when I returned to the ship - the partial pressure of oxygen (in the cabin) began to grow, which reached 460 mm and continued to grow. This is at a rate of 160 mm! But after all, 460 mm is explosive gas, because Bondarenko burned out on this ... At first we sat in a daze. Everyone understood, but they could do almost nothing: they completely removed the humidity, removed the temperature (it became 10 - 12 ° C). And the pressure is growing ... The slightest spark - and everything would turn into a molecular state, and we understood this. Seven hours in this state, and then fell asleep ... apparently from stress. Then we figured out that I had touched the boost switch with the spacesuit hose... What actually happened? Since the ship was stabilized relative to the Sun for a long time, then, naturally, a deformation arose: after all, on the one hand, cooling to - 140 ° C, on the other, heating to + 150 ° C ... The hatch closing sensors worked, but a gap remained. The regeneration system began to build up pressure, and oxygen began to grow, we did not have time to consume it ... The total pressure reached 920 mm. These several tons of pressure pressed down the hatch and the pressure growth stopped. Then the pressure began to drop before our eyes.

But the adventures of Leonov and Belyaev did not end there. Before landing, the automatic orientation system failed. P. I. Belyaev manually oriented the ship and turned on the brake engine. As a result, Voskhod landed in an undesignated area 180 km north of the city of Perm. TASS reported that the ship landed in a "reserve area", which was simply a remote Permian taiga. The cosmonauts spent two nights alone in the wild forest in severe frost. Only on the third day, rescuers on skis made their way through the deep snow, who were forced to cut down the forest in the Voskhod landing area in order to clear the area for the helicopter to land. The flight lasted 1 day 2 hours 2 minutes.

For the successful implementation of the flight and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on March 23, 1965 with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

In subsequent years, Leonov was part of a group of Soviet cosmonauts who were trained under Soviet programs for the exploration of the moon. But the Americans were ahead of the USSR in this. After graduating in 1968 from the N. E. Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy (Department of Engineering), Leonov prepared for other space flights, but for various reasons they were not carried out. And finally, on July 15-21, 1975, together with V.N. Kubasov, he made second flight into space as commander of the Soyuz-19 spacecraft under the ASTP program (Soyuz-Apollo). Flight duration - 5 days 22 hours 30 minutes. Then for the first time in the world docking of ships from two different countries was carried out.

For the successful implementation of the flight and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, Major General of Aviation A. A. Leonov was awarded the second Gold Star medal and the Order of Lenin on July 22, 1975.

short biography

Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov Born in 1934 (19340530) in the village of Listvyanka, Tisulsky District, West Siberian Territory (now Kemerovo Region), was the eighth child in the family. He spent his childhood in Kemerovo and Kaliningrad, where his family moved. He graduated from high school in Kaliningrad, then the Military Aviation School for the initial training of pilots in Kremenchug, where he entered the Komsomol recruitment. In 1957 he graduated from the Chuguev Military Aviation School for Pilots.

In 1970-1991 he worked as deputy head of the Cosmonaut Training Center. He graduated from postgraduate studies at the Air Force Engineering Academy named after N. E. Zhukovsky. Candidate of Technical Sciences. Since March 1992, Major General of Aviation A. A. Leonov has been in reserve. He has 4 inventions and more than 10 scientific papers.