Alexei Leonov, first human to walk in space, dies in Moscow

Leonov performed his spacewalk on March 18, 1965, when he exited his Voskhod 2 capsule, secured by a tether. On his second trip to space ten years later, Leonov commanded the Soviet half of the Apollo-Soyuz 19 mission. It was the first joint space mission between the Soviet Union and the United States, carried out at the height of the Cold War.

FILE – In this Friday, June 14, 2013 file photo, Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who made the first spacewalk in 1965, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for a photo in the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia. (AP)

The cosmonaut turned 85 in May. Several days before that, two Russian crewmembers on the International Space Station ventured into open space on a planned spacewalk with stickers attached on their spacesuits paying tribute to him, and congratulated him from space.

Roscosmos said Leonov would be buried Tuesday at a military memorial cemetery outside Moscow.