Alexey Leonov

Alexey Leonov was behind one of the great checkmarks in the space race “to do” list. On March 18, 1965, he became the first man to conduct a spacewalk, spending 12 minutes outside the Voshkod 2 craft. It was meant to be a much shorter walk, with Leonov tasked only with taking some photos of space, but his suit became rigid upon leaving the craft and he had to “bleed” air out of it before he could walk back in. Soviet radio stopped carrying updates from the mission for around 30 minutes around this incident. The landing went awry as well: Leonov and co-Cosmonaut Pavel Belyayev came down 386km away from their intended location, and had to spend the night on a mountain top surrounded by wolves in mating season before a rescue team on skis could come collect them. Leonov seemed to invite misfortune: he was also present in the motorcade in 1969 when a Soviet Army deserter, inspired by Lee Harvey Oswald, tried to assassinate Leonid Brezhnev. Leonov sustained minor injuries in the incident.

Alexey Leonov
30 May 1934 – 11 October 2019
Died aged 85 (unique hit)