Alexei Leonov, the first person ever to spacewalk, has died, The Independent says.

Leonov passed away at 85 and will be buried this month, Russian news agency TASS reported.

The cosmonaut made history in 1965, when he stepped outside his spacecraft for just over 12 minutes and floated around, attached by a tether. The pioneering mission nearly ended in disaster when his suit inflated during the spacewalk and he was unable to fit back into the craft.

He would go on to lead the Soviet part of the Soyuz-Apollo mission, which 10 years later became the first joint space mission with the US.

Leonov had also been selected as the first Soviet person to land on the Moon, before that mission was cancelled.