A Soviet-era cosmonaut, Alexei Leonov, who was the first man to conduct a spacewalk in 1965, died in Moscow on Friday, aged 85 after a long illness.
Saddened to announce the death of ‘cosmonaut No 11’ who was twice decorated with the country’s top honour, the Hero of the Soviet Union, the Russian space agency, Roscosmos said.
Until his death, Leonov was a close friend of Yury Gagarin, the first human to go to outer space in 1961.
According to a report by Daily Mail UK, Leonov trained together with Gagarin and was selected to perform the first spacewalk as the Soviet Union and United States, Cold War foes on Earth, were locked in a frantic race to conquer space.
In 1965, Leonov made history when he left a spacecraft during the Voskhod 2 mission for a spacewalk that lasted 12 minutes and nine seconds.
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