Alexei Leonov is dead, the first man who made a …

Russian astronaut Alexei Leonov, which on March 18, 1965, played in the act of the first release in the space, died at the age of 85 in Moscow, reported today the Russian agency TASS.

Leovnov was one of twenty Soviet air force pilots chosen to join the first group of astronauts in 1960.

Its exit in space was originally to be performed in the Vosjod 1 mission, but it was canceled. The historical event took place during the flight of Vosjod 2, next to Major Pavel Beliayev.

Leonov he left the ship for 12 minutes and nine seconds on March 18, 1965, joined the ship by a belt of 5.35 meters after a year and a half of intensive training in weightlessness.

In January 2011, Leónov became the last survivor of the five astronauts of the Vosjod program.

In 1968, Leónov was chosen to command a circumferential flight of the Soyuz, but as all the unmanned test flights of this project failed and the Apollo 8 mission had already passed this stage in the American space race, the Project C was canceled.

He was also chosen to be the first Soviet on the moon aboard the LOK / N1 spacecraft, which was also canceled.

Leonov's second space trip was just as important: he was the commander of the Soviet half of the Apollo-Soyuz-Soyuz 19 mission – the first joint space mission of the Soviet Union and the United States. United.

From 1976 to 1982, Leónov was commander of the astronaut team and deputy director of the Cosmonaut Training Center Yuri Gagarin, where he supervised the training of the crews. He retired in 1991.