5.6 KiB
| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alexei Leonov | 2/3 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Leonov | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T12:35:31.631828+00:00 | kb-cron |
Leonov was an accomplished artist whose published books include albums of his artistic works and works he did in collaboration with his friend Andrei Sokolov. Leonov took coloured pencils and paper into space, where he sketched the Earth, becoming the first artist in space, and drew portraits of the Apollo astronauts who flew with him during the 1975 Apollo–Soyuz Test Project. Arthur C. Clarke wrote in his notes to his 1982 novel 2010: Odyssey Two that, after a 1968 screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Leonov pointed out to him that the alignment of the Moon, Earth, and Sun shown in the opening is essentially the same as that in Leonov's 1967 painting Near the Moon, although the painting's diagonal framing of the scene was not replicated in the film. Clarke kept an autographed sketch of this painting—which Leonov made after the screening—hanging on his office wall. Clarke dedicated 2010: Odyssey Two to Leonov and Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov. The fictional spaceship in the book is named Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov. Together with Valentin Selivanov, Leonov wrote the script for the 1980 science fiction film The Orion Loop.
Leonov was the head of the Banner of Peace in Space project from 1990 until his death. Leonov retired in 1991 and lived in Moscow in his final years. He had been in reserve since March 1992. In 1992–1993, he was director of space programs at Chetek. Leonov was an advisor to the First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Moscow-based Alfa-Bank, and in 2001, vice-president of Alfa-Bank. He was a member of the United Russia party since 18 December 2002 and a member of the party's Supreme Council. He received recognition as an artist (he collaborated with Andrei Sokolov), and his works are widely exhibited and published. In 2004, Leonov and former American astronaut David Scott began work on a dual memoir covering the history of the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Titled Two Sides of the Moon: Our Story of the Cold War Space Race, it was published in 2006. Neil Armstrong and Tom Hanks both wrote introductions to the book. Leonov was interviewed by Francis French for the 2007 book Into That Silent Sea by Colin Burgess and French. Leonov died in Moscow on 11 October 2019 after a long illness. His funeral took place on 15 October. He was 85 and the last living member of the five cosmonauts in the Voskhod programme. He was survived by his wife Svetlana Dozenko, daughter Oksana, and two grandchildren; his other daughter, Viktoria, died in 1996.
== Legacy ==
In 1966, in the town Balashov in the Saratov region, the A. A. Leonov School of Young Cosmonauts (школа юных космонавтов имени А. А. Леонова) was opened. Future pilots were trained in this school, and students learned to fly an airplane Worried about the Siberian wildlife, namely bears and wolves, while awaiting pick-up after landing, Alexei Leonov inspired the TP-82 Cosmonaut survival pistol, which was regularly carried by Cosmonaut expeditions from 1986 to 2007. The Leonov crater, near Mare Moscoviense (Sea of Moscow) on the far side of the Moon, was named after Leonov in 1970. 9533 Aleksejleonov, an asteroid first observed in 1981, was named for him. In the 1982 book 2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke the Soviet spaceship Alexei Leonov is named after the cosmonaut. The book is dedicated to Leonov and Andrei Sakharov. Leonov, along with Rusty Schweickart, established the Association of Space Explorers in 1985. Membership is open to all people who have orbited the Earth. Leonov created the image of Stephen Hawking for the medal, which was established by the Starmus Festival. Since 2015, it has been awarded for works contributing to the promotion of scientific knowledge in various fields, such as music, art, cinema. The portrait of Hawking painted by the astronaut is depicted on the front side of the "scientific Oscar". The reverse depicts Leonov's first spacewalk and Brian May's guitar, symbolizing the two main components of the festival. Leonov created the design for the reverse side in close cooperation with May. The 2017 film The Age of Pioneers (Russian: Vremya Pervykh) is based on Leonov's account of the Voskhod 2 mission. Leonov was portrayed by Yevgeny Mironov. He was a technical adviser for the movie; the director cut all scenes featuring Gagarin–about 40 minutes of film–so Leonov could be the focus. The song "E.V.A." by Public Service Broadcasting on their 2015 album, The Race for Space, references Leonov becoming the first man to undertake extravehicular activity in space. In the 2019 alternate history television series, For All Mankind, Leonov is portrayed as the first person to walk on the Moon. Leonov, a 2020 album by BlackWeald, is a dark ambient interpretation of the Voskhod 2 mission. "Orbital Sunrise," an essay by John Green, focuses in part on the sketch Leonov made during his 1965 mission. It was released on 26 August 2021 as part of Green's podcast, The Anthropocene Reviewed. Later, it was posted separately on the YouTube channel vlogbrothers, and included in the Anthropocene Reviewed book. At the 2022 on Starmus festival, held for the first time in the post-Soviet space, in Armenia, the premiere of the documentary film "Space Inside" about Alexei Leonov took place. It was introduced by the cosmonaut's daughter, Oksana Leonova. It is based on the last interview of the pioneer.
=== Soviet/Russian awards and honours ===