This archive report was first published on 16 October 2019.
On October 15, 2019, hundreds of Russians gathered to bid farewell to cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, the first human to walk in space, at a solemn funeral ceremony in Moscow's suburbs.
The ceremony, attended by Russia's defense minister and prominent space exploration figures, including 89-year-old former U.S. astronaut Thomas Stafford, culminated in a gun salute.
Though less well known internationally than Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, Leonov was a household name in his native Russia and will be remembered for his role in the 1965 Voskhod-2 mission, during which he became the first human to walk in space for 12 minutes and 9 seconds.
Stafford, who commanded an Apollo spacecraft that docked with a Soyuz spacecraft commanded by Leonov in 1975, delivered a speech in Russian at the ceremony, calling Leonov 'my colleague and friend' and saying 'Alexei, we will never forget you.'
After several speeches, hundreds of Russians queued up to pay their respects and lay flowers by Leonov's cask.
Leonov was twice dubbed a 'Hero of the Soviet Union' and has a small crater on the Moon named after him.
