Kassym-Jomart Tokayev condoles over death of cosmonaut Alexei Leonov
On his own behalf and on behalf of the people of Kazakhstan President Tokayev extended his deepest condolences over the death of the pilot-cosmonaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Alexei Leonov.
«Alexei Leonov was a true professional and a legendary person in world space exploration. He was the first in the world to go into open space. Possessing courage and heroism Leonov was able to do something that was not under the power of others risking his life for a great purpose», the message reads.
As it was previously reported, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Alexei Leonov has died in Moscow at the age of 86.
According to TASS, Leonov made two space flights that lasted a total of seven days and 33 minutes. The first one was on March 18-19, 1965. Leonov was a co-pilot of the spacecraft Voskhod-2 (commander Pavel Belyayev) launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome. During that space mission Leonov performed the first-ever spacewalk. During his second space voyage on July 15-21, 1975 Leonov was the commander of the crew that participated in the first international docking of the Soviet Union’s Soyuz-19 spacecraft and the United States’ Apollo-18.