Vostok 3

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mission dates
Mission: Vostok 3
COSPAR-ID : 1962-036A
Spacecraft: Vostok
Dimensions: 4731 kg
Call sign: Сокол (Sokol - "falcon")
Crew: 1
Begin: August 11, 1962, 08:30 UT
Starting place: Baikonur 1/5
Landing: August 15, 1962, 06:52 UT
Landing place: near Karakalinsk , Karaganda Oblast
48 ° 02 'N, 75 ° 45' E
Flight duration: 3d 22h 22m
Earth orbits: 64
Rotation time : 88.33 min
Orbit inclination : 64.98 °
Apogee : 218 km
Perigee : 166 km
Covered track: 2.64 million km
◄ Before / After ►
Vostok 2
(manned) 		Vostok 4
(manned)

Vostok 3 was a manned space flight of the Soviet Vostok program . Together with Vostok 4 , the first double flight of the manned space flight was undertaken. The cosmonaut Andrijan Nikolajew stayed in orbit for almost four days.

crew

Andrijan Nikolajew on a Soviet Union postage stamp

Substitute team

Support team

preparation

A few months had passed since the spectacular flights of Vostok 1 and Vostok 2 when, in February 1962, the American space program with Mercury Atlas 6 succeeded for the first time in an orbital manned space flight. Even if NASA lagged far behind the Soviet achievements with only three orbits of the earth (17 orbits), the Soviets wanted to do something about it: a group flight with two Vostok spaceships at the same time.

The Deputy Prime Minister Dimitri Ustinow asked the head of the Soviet space program Sergei Pavlovich Korolev to start in March 1962, but this could not be carried out at such short notice. Two false starts by unmanned satellites, which were supposed to be brought into space with the same launcher as the Vostok spacecraft, caused further delays. During the second of these false starts, the rocket exploded shortly after take-off and damaged the launch pad, making extensive repairs necessary.

Andrijan Nikolajew was selected as the pilot for Vostok 3 , Valeri Bykowski became a substitute .

Flight history

Vostok 3 finally took off on August 11, 1962 at 11:30 a.m. Moscow time from the Baikonur rocket launch site and after a few minutes reached earth orbit with 166 km perigee and 218 km apogee at an inclination of 65 degrees.

After almost 24 hours, Vostok 4 followed with Pawel Popowitsch on board. That was the first time that two astronauts were in space at the same time.

The orbits had been carefully calculated so that the two spaceships approached within 6 km. The approach did not take place through active control of the spaceships, so that one cannot necessarily speak of a rendezvous .

The distance between the two Vostok spaceships increased accordingly again quickly. Nikolayev and Popovich were probably in direct radio contact with each other during the entire flight.

Vostok 3 completed 64 orbits of the earth. The landing took place on August 15, 1962 at 9:52 a.m. Moscow time in northern Kyrgyzstan . As usual with the Vostok flights, Nikolayev used the ejection seat and landed on his own parachute . Vostok 4 landed about 290 km away at the same time.

meaning

With just under four days in space, Nikolayev set a new endurance record, quadrupling the previous best performance. The Americans had only five hours from that time Scott Carpenter with Mercury-Atlas 7 reached.

The group flight of Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 was hailed as a great achievement of Soviet space travel. Even if it is now known that the spaceships could not be steered themselves, it can be seen as a great achievement to carry out two launches within 24 hours. The transmission of voice and telemetry to two spaceships at the same time was a special achievement, after all , there were no communications satellites at that time and, unlike the USA, the Soviet Union did not have a global network of ground stations.

Web links