Cosmonaut Leonov - the hero of the world cosmonautics

Cosmonaut Leonov, known in the future in the worldAlexey Arkhipovich 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 man in the village, so he was elected chairman of the village council. When the boy turned thirteen, his whole family moved to the city of Kaliningrad in connection with the activity of the head of the family. Interest in aviation technology in the young man arose even while studying at school. Then he gained initial knowledge in such disciplines as the theory of flying and the design of aircraft. After graduating from high school in 1953 with good grades, Leonov entered the Kremenchug school of pilots without problems. In addition to it, he also received knowledge in the higher school, which was located in Chuguev and trained fighter pilots. In 1960, Alexei Arkhipovich, after a long and hard selection, entered with a detachment of astronauts.

The conquest of outer space

In March 1965, a special flight washistory of Soviet and world cosmonautics. Then the cosmonaut Leonov was in the role of the second pilot of the ship "Voskhod-2" (the first was PI Belyaev). During this flight, man first time found himself in outer space. He spent 12 minutes and 9 seconds at a distance of five meters from the ship. Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov is an astronaut who carried out this, thereby initiating a new round of human space activity. Career by his impetuous steps went up after this. During the period from 1967 to 1970, he even headed a group that was preparing to fly to the moon.

The first Soviet-American flight

In the first months of 1973 the Soviet AcademySciences jointly with NASA began training personnel for the Soyuz and Apollo spacecraft. Applicants should have a good understanding of space technology, know foreign languages, have high qualifications and professionalism. Cosmonaut Leonov was appointed commander of a domestic ship. The joint flight, which lasted more than five days, aroused great interest all over the world. In the course of its conduct, the first Soviet spacecraft docked with the American spacecraft. In addition, the cosmonauts carried out many important biomedical, astrophysical and technological experiments.

Contribution to the development of world cosmonautics

Cosmonaut Leonov during his work dida 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 we should mention the study of color and light visual characteristics after space flights, the development of a spacesuit for work in the hydrosphere, the possibility of using the hydrosphere as an analog of weightlessness. Moreover, he owns more than thirty speeches at various conferences and congresses. Alexei Leonov is an astronaut 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 chairpersons of the International Association of Space Flyers. He retired when he was promoted to major general of aviation. Now he lives and works in Moscow.