From Outer Space to AUB

Aleksei Arkhipovich Leonov

In March forty-one years ago, cosmonaut Aleksei Arkhipovich Leonov walked for twelve minutes in outer space and changed the shape of space technology forever. On March 15 of this year, Leonov arrived in Beirut to share this experience with the AUB community. "I have seen Lebanon before, but only from above," said Leonov, as he began addressing the crowded audience. With an eye trained for detail, Leonov first explained the physics of space travel and then went on to relate the minutiae of his journey into outer space.

Using the scarce English at his command, Leonov described the harsh training he underwent in preparation for the adventure. "I was not a man of science or mechanics; I was just a pilot…ordered to get out of the spacecraft and report what happens to the human body up there," he said. Leonov carried a primitive video camera with him and recorded a small film that went on to win the Palm D'Or at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival for best scientific documentary.

When he returned to the ship after his walk, Leonov's spacesuit had inflated to the point where he could not make it back through the ship's portal. He said he opened the valve to his spacesuit to regulate the pressure, a process that could have caused his blood to boil. The risk he took led to a major evolution in the design of spacesuits.

The trip back to earth was an adventure in itself. The navigation system broke down and the spacecraft landed in ice-cold Siberia, 2,500 km away from the charted landing point. "No one was waiting for us when we got there," joked Leonov, and Morse code messages to headquarters elicited no reply. When they were finally found, the cold, tired crew was treated to an on-site jacuzzi.

Leonov currently chairs an investment corporation in Moscow. He was decorated twice as the Hero of the Soviet Union (1965 and 1975) and has received numerous medals and foreign awards.