OREANDA-NEWS. 85 year old Alexei Leonov, the famous Soviet cosmonaut, died in one of Moscow hospitals after a long illness. It was reported by the press service of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.

In March 1965, Alexei Leonov conducted a spacewalk and became the first person who did it. Ten years later, in July 1975, he made his second spaceflight, during which he participated in the docking of the Soviet ship Soyuz-19 with the American Apollo.

From 1970 to 1991, Major General Leonov was the deputy head of the Cosmonaut Training Center. After his official retirement, he collaborated with various organizations, being an adviser to the First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alfa Bank and a member of the Advisory Board of the Baring Vostok investment fund.

Oleg Mukhin, the Vice President of the Federation of Cosmonautics of Russian, called Leonov a unique personality. “His flight to Soyuz-Apollo showed that we can work together with the Americans in space, which is now happening on the ISS (International Space Station. – Ed.). Well, and, of course, Aleksei Arkhipovich was a comprehensively advanced person, he brought his heroism to us,” he said.

The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) expressed condolences on the death of Alexei Leonov. It is said on the page of the agency on Twitter that they are saddened by the passing away of the legendary cosmonaut. The representatives of the NASA noted that the beginning of work in outer space was laid thanks to Leonov.