Saturday Dec 15, 2007
Astronaut Alexey Leonov of Russia, the first man to walk in space will be the guest of honour at a ceremony to felicitate Sir Arthur C. Clarke on his 90th birthday at a Central Bank auditorium today at 5.00 p.m.

The Foreign Ministry will host the ceremony to felicitate Sir Clarke which will be held under the patronage of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama will deliver the welcome address. Dr. Alexey Leonov who was the first man to walk in space, when he stepped outside the Voskhod 2 spacecraft for about 12 minutes, on March 18, 1965.

He is also a long standing personal friend of Sir Arthur C. Clarke. Dr. Leonov is due to present Sir Arthur a medal from the Federation of Cosmonautics of Russia and deliver an address on “Sir Arthur C Clarke: A personal memoir”.