Leonov

Personal data:

Birthdate:  30 May 1934 Birthplace:  Listvyanka / Kemerowo Oblast / RUSSIA Marital status:  married Children:  two Selection date:  07 Mar 1960 Job:  Pilot Status:  Ret. 26 Jan 1982

Spaceflights:

EVA′s:

Additional information

• Graduated from Airforce Engineering Academy; Major General, Soviet Air Force; was selected as cosmonaut on 07.03.1960 (TsPK-1); OKP: 3/60 - 03.04.1991; first cosmonaut who performed an EVA; 1975 - 1982 Chief cosmonaut; currently president of US-Investmentcorporation "Alpha Capital", Moscow.
• n 1968, Leonov was selected to be commander of a circumlunar Soyuz 7K-L1 flight. This was cancelled because of delays in achieving a reliable circumlunar flight (only the later Zond 7 and Zond 8 members of the programme were successful) and the Apollo 8 mission had already achieved that step in the Space Race with the United States gaining that prestige first.
• He was also selected to be the first Soviet person to land on the Moon, aboard the LOK/N1 spacecraft. This project was also cancelled. (The design required a spacewalk between lunar vehicles, something that may have contributed to his selection.)
• Leonov was to have been commander of the 1971 Soyuz 11 mission to Salyut 1, the first manned space station, but his crew was replaced with the backup after one of the members, cosmonaut Valery Kubasov, was suspected to have contracted tuberculosis (the other member was Pyotr Kolodin).