Born in 1934, Alexei Leonov became the 11th Soviet cosmonaut and achieved several major milestones of space exploration. During the Voskhod 2 mission, on March 18, 1965, he exited his capsule for 12 minutes, performing the first human spacewalk. Leonov barely survived the excursion after a malfunction with his suit forced him to drop its pressure in order to make his way back into the capsule.
An artist as well as a cosmonaut, Leonov took colored pencils altered for zero gravity with him on Voskhod 2 and sketched an orbital sunrise, which is considered the first piece of art created in space. Leonov would go on to command the Soyuz capsule that set a standard of international cooperation in space when it docked for two days with NASA’s Apollo capsule, In July 1975.
