Alexei Leonov: The Soviet Cosmonaut Who Nearly Died During History's First Spacewalk

History · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Alexei Leonov was a pioneer of the space race, performing the first spacewalk in 1965. Yet, his historic achievement nearly turned fatal when his pressurized suit ballooned, trapping him outside his craft. Beyond his daring missions, Leonov was a talented artist who captured the surreal beauty of the cosmos on canvas.

Born in Siberia in 1934, Alexei Leonov was a man of diverse talents, balancing a passion for art with a career as a skilled pilot and parachutist. Selected for the first Soviet cosmonaut corps in 1960, he trained alongside Yuri Gagarin. His defining moment arrived on March 18, 1965, during the Voskhod 2 mission. Leonov exited the spacecraft via an inflatable airlock, becoming the first human to conduct an extravehicular activity (EVA).

The mission quickly descended into a nightmare. In the vacuum of space, Leonov’s suit became rigid and inflated, making movement nearly impossible. He struggled to reenter the airlock, eventually forced to bleed pressure from his suit to regain enough flexibility to squeeze inside. The ordeal left him exhausted, and the mission’s return to Earth was equally perilous; the capsule landed far off-course in the Ural mountains, forcing the crew to survive a night in the forest surrounded by wolves.

Despite these close calls, Leonov remained at the forefront of the space race. He was slated to be the first Soviet to land on the Moon, but the program was ultimately shelved following the failure of the N1 rocket. He later transitioned to the Salyut space station program and eventually commanded the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. This mission, which saw him shake hands with NASA astronaut Thomas Stafford in orbit, served as a symbolic end to the intense US-Soviet space confrontation.

Throughout his life, Leonov never abandoned his artistic roots. He famously sketched an orbital sunrise while in space, becoming the first artist to create work in the cosmos. His legacy is that of a rare polymath who viewed the technical challenges of space exploration through the lens of a painter, offering a unique, human perspective on the vast, dangerous frontier of the stars.

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