Alexei Leonov
(IN PHOTO)Russia's Prime Minister and President-elect Vladimir Putin (L) and Alexei Leonov, the first man to conduct a space walk in 1965, take part in an award ceremony at the Planetarium on the Day of Aviation and Cosmonautics and the 51st anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's historic first space flight in Moscow April 12, 2012. REUTERS

London’s Science Museum is hosting a Russian Space Exhibition, Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age that will cover the history of Russia’s Space Programme. The announcement for the launch was made by the retired Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, the first human to walk in space about five decades ago. The exhibition is opening on 18th Sept. and is supported by BP, ART RUSSE and the Blavatnik Family Foundation. It will feature the largest and most significant collection of Russian spacecraft ever to be shown in the UK while exposing the glorious tale of technological and scientific achievements that sparked the space age giving the then Soviet Union its record breaking number of firsts.

About fifty years ago on 18th March 1965, Leonov’s 12-minute historic spacewalk was considered as a remarkable achievement by the scientists at ground control and the rest of the world. According to him, he and crew mate Pavel Belyayev had faced a series of emergencies during their mission. They also had to struggle getting back into the spacecraft after the coveted spacewalk. Their navigation failed and had to steer the spaceship manually back to Earth. While it tumbled violently, the spacecraft exposed Leonov and Belyayev to ten times the force of gravity.

Later, they landed their spacecraft in the Ural Mountains and were forced to spend their night in minus 25 degree Celsius. He further added that many of the problems faced during his first flight were not possible to test on surface of Earth. “But I had to do it. What I want to say is that even if it’s only a small thing you want to achieve, you still need to make every possible effort and do it thoroughly,” he said.

Director of the Science Museum, Ian Blatchford, while addressing the audience present for the announcement said “We are honoured that Alexei Leonov could join us today, fifty years after becoming the first person to walk in space. Cosmonaut is once-in-a-lifetime exhibition that has taken years of dedication and skill from the Science Museum team to make a reality. The Russian space programme is one of the great intellectual, scientific and engineering successes of the 20th century and I am thrilled that we have been able to bring together such an outstanding collection of Russian space artefacts to celebrate these achievements. I want to thank all our partners and funders who have made this exhibition possible.”

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