Born in Siberia on 30 May 1934, Leonov graduated from a selection of air force academies with honours and was quickly picked to be one of the first 20 people for the Soviet space program. In 1965 the Soviet Union was well ahead of the US in the race to land humans on the Moon: they had already launched the first satellite, animal, man and woman into space. When the Soviet Union learned that the US was planning the first spacewalk, their efforts became focused on beating them to it. Leonov underwent 18 months of intensive weightlessness training, and while the US spacewalk was scheduled for June, Leonov was first blasted into orbit on 18 March 1934.
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