ON THIS DAY IN 1965: Today marks the anniversary of the historic first spacewalk. On March 18 in1965, Russian cosmonaut Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov became the first human to ever perform a spacewalk. The cosmonaut made history at just the age of 30. There were plans for him to go to the moon as well, and if things had gone according to the plan, he would have been the first person to step on the moon as well.

He made history, and years after his decade and his achievement, Leonov is still remembered for his courage. He was in the Russian spacecraft Voskhod 2, and he free floated for 12 minutes and 9 seconds before returning to his capsule.

Alexei Leonov was one of the 20 Soviet Air Force pilots who was selected in the first cosmonaut group of 1960. He started his training for the space walk in 1963. He was supposed to go on the Vostok 1 mission, but it got canceled, and the historic event took place on the Voskhod 2 flight.

However, it was not all smooth and easy as just after eight minutes, his space suit inflated, and his spacewalk took a life-threatening turn. Somehow, he managed to get back to the spacecraft, it is reported that Leonov sweated so much that he lost nearly 6 kilograms that day.

Time photographer Marco Grob visited Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov in 2015 and when asked about his experience, he said, “I don’t remember anything as well as I remember the sound – this remarkable silence.”

He added that after he closed his eyes, he saw “the entire Black Sea, the Crimean Peninsula. This is not a map, it’s what I saw. I can take a pencil now and draw it because I remembered it for the rest of my life. I looked up and there was the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Kaliningrad. I spent my adolescence at the Gulf of Kaliningrad. It was so unusual.”

Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov died on October 11, 2019, in Moscow, Russia after a long illness.

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