Soviet cosmonaut who flew humanity's first multi-day spaceflight aboard Vostok 3
The moment Vostok 3 reached orbit, Nikolayev unstrapped himself and floated free inside the cabin: Gagarin had not done it, nor had Titov. It was the first time a human being had ever slipped free of gravity's hold in space.
Born to a Chuvash peasant family, Nikolayev became the third Soviet cosmonaut in space. In August 1962, aboard Vostok 3, he orbited Earth 64 times over four days, humanity's first multi-day spaceflight, and his joint flight with Pavel Popovich's Vostok 4 established the dual-launch precedent later used for the women's space mission. His flight data proved that missions exceeding three days were feasible. In 1970, his 18-day Soyuz 9 mission with Vitaly Sevastyanov revealed the severe physiological toll of prolonged weightlessness, the 'Nikolayev effect', while his 1963 marriage to Valentina Tereshkova, presided over by Khrushchev, became a signature Cold War propaganda spectacle.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1947–50Forestry technician, Karelia
- 1950–54Drafted; fighter pilot training, Chernigov and Frunze
- 1955–60Fighter pilot, Moscow air defence
- 1960Selected for the first cosmonaut group
- 1962.8Vostok 3: first multi-day spaceflight (64 orbits, 4 days)
- 1963–68Commander, Soviet cosmonaut detachment
- 1970.6Soyuz 9: 18-day endurance record
- 1974–82First Deputy Director, Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre; retired
Related historical events
Commanding the cosmonaut corps and the cancelled lunar bid, 1963–1974
The 1962 flight pushed Nikolayev beyond the capsule into organizational work. From 1963 to 1968 he commanded the Soviet cosmonaut detachment, the post that put a flown cosmonaut in charge of the corps' training and of preparation for subsequent missions. At the same time, from 1965 to 1969 he belonged to the group of cosmonauts training for the Soviet lunar programmes, the L1/Zond circumlunar loop and the L3 lunar landing, and was commander of one of the crews. Those preparing the loop reckoned it would take four days in space; the chief designer argued for precisely that endurance back in 1962, and Nikolayev's first flight ran 3 days 22 hours 22 minutes. After the lunar programme was wound up following Korolyov's death, he switched his preparation to Soyuz-class ships.
From 1968 to 1974 Nikolayev served as deputy head of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, and in October 1969 he commanded the backup crew of Soyuz 8. Soyuz 9, his second and last spaceflight, was the one he led, but its results reshaped the material basis of later Soyuz missions. On the strength of the eighteen days he flew from 1 to 19 June 1970, the programme developed the complex of medical and prophylactic equipment that would be fitted to every orbital station: a treadmill and bicycle ergometer, the Pingvin loading suit and the Chibis vacuum device. He wanted a third flight and asked to be attached to the Soviet-American programme, but the decision was made to give younger cosmonauts their turn; he left the cosmonaut corps on 26 January 1982.