1st Human to Spacewalk Dies at 85: Russian Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov

Leonov performed his spacewalk on March 18, 1965, when he exited his Voskhod 2 capsule, secured by a tether.

Alexei Leonov, the first human to walk in space, died in Moscow on Friday, 11 October 2019. He was 85.

(Photo: AP)

Russia's space agency says Alexei Leonov, the first human to take a spacewalk 54 years ago, has died in Moscow. He was 85.

Roscosmos says in a statement on its website that Leonov died on Friday, 11 October. It did not provide any more details.

Leonov performed his spacewalk on 18 March 1965, when he exited his Voskhod 2 capsule, secured by a tether.

On his second trip to space 10 years later, Leonov commanded the Soviet half of the Apollo-Soyuz 19 mission. It was the first joint space mission between the Soviet Union and the United States, carried out at the height of the Cold War.

The cosmonaut turned 85 in May. Several days before that, two Russian crew members on the International Space Station ventured into open space on a planned spacewalk with stickers attached on their spacesuits paying tribute to him, and congratulated him from space.

Roscosmos said Leonov would be buried Tuesday at a military memorial cemetery outside Moscow.