Another space pioneer has left the launch pad: News this morning that former cosmonaut Alexi Leonov, the first human to walk in space, has died at the age of 85.
Leonov spent 12 minutes outside of his Voskhod 2 spacecraft in 1965, and later he was one of the members of the Apollo-Soyuz joint mission in 1975.
Wow, that mission really excited the hell out of us at the time. Even as only a sixth-grader, we knew what a big deal it was that the Americans and Soviets were cooperating in space together.
Astronomy magazine editor Dave Eicher knew Leonov personally and expressed what an ongoing presence he was in the space community, calling him a “wonderful supporter of Starmus,” the annual gathering in Switzerland.
If you have other stories about Leonov, we’d love to hear them.
