Today is the 85th birthday of the man without whom Russian cosmonautics wouldn't be so successful, the living legend who was the first to brave a spacewalk, Alexei Leonov. Vladimir Putin wished him a happy birthday, pointing out Leonov's unprecedented courage and loyalty to the cause.
Ilya Filippov with the details.
The man who presented outer space to the world. A white silhouette against the black universe attached to the mothership with a connective strap as if with an umbilical cord. There's no reason to introduce him here, it's clear that the man is Leonov. The exhibition at the Cosmonautics Museum, timed to his 85th birthday, bears the same laconic and familiar name. He's one of the first Korolyov Eagles, that's the way Sergey Korolyov called them, who went out there to the stars and added picturesque panoramas of our Earth to the black-and-white footage. Looking at his pictures, you realize that the air we breathe looks like blue jam from space. Leonov was the first to share that there is almost no sound there, almost.
Alexei Leonov, cosmonaut: "I constantly heard the pumping of my heart and my strained breathing. I was breathing like this".
He shared it with sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote A Space Odyssey. Leonov calls zero-gravity the "Golgotha" that every space explorer will need to climb. Its weightlessness is deceiving. It's the hardest trial for cosmonauts and astronauts; they train hard to prepare for it. Leonov was the one training new candidates at the Gagarin Training Center.
He's still loyal to their friendship. The photo was taken in the canteen; the number one cosmonaut standing with his friend, who later became a cloak.
Alexei Leonov, cosmonaut: "Tsiolkovsky used to call the cosmonauts who worked in outer space "cloaks". I wore a white polyamide cover over my space suit. It reflected the sun's rays. That's why they called me "cloak".
While he was docking the Soyuz and the Apollo, kids were playing with sand in Star City in Moscow Oblast. They all came from the same apartment block where each dad was a hero.
Oksana Leonova, daughter: "It seemed like a usual thing. Today, the dad from the fourth floor goes to space. Tomorrow, the dad from the sixth lands. The day after, the dad from the seventh goes to space. That's the way it was".
His friends and family say that he's been sick lately. A man of colossal efficiency, as cosmonaut Vladimir Dzhanibekov calls him. Everybody wants to support Alexei Leonov.
Valentina Tereshkova, cosmonaut: "My dear Alexei, I heartily wish you happy birthday. Get well. You need to recover as soon as possible and continue working because you're still capable".
Sergey Kirkalyov, cosmonaut: "First of all, I wish you health so you'll stay with us for years to come and make us all better people by just being around".
The ISS also wishes Leonov a happy birthday. Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Alexei Ovchinin took a photo of the pioneer to outer space as a gift for his 85th birthday.
Ilya Filippov, Oleg Dubinin, and Madina Safina Vesti.
