Alexei Leonov was born on May 30 1934. In 1960, he was admitted to the first Soviet cosmonaut group.

On May 18-19, 1965, together with Pavel Belyayev, Leonov took part in the Voskhod 2 flight as second pilot.

During the mission, Alexei Leonov conducted extra-vehicular activity, exiting the capsule for the first ever spacewalk which lasted 12 minutes and nine seconds. He moved five meters away from the capsule.

An emergency situation occurred during the spacewalk, when Leonov's spacesuit inflated the vacuum of space and became too big to fit the airlock. Opening the valve to lower the pressure, the cosmonaut managed to get back into the capsule, though he did it the wrong way, getting in with his head first. Alexei Leonov's life in this photo gallery by ITAR-TASS.