Cosmonaut No. 4, Vostok 4 pilot of the first simultaneous crewed spaceflight
At Korolev's request during the flight, he sang the Ukrainian folk song 'I gaze at the sky and ponder a thought,' the first human song ever performed in space.
The fourth Soviet cosmonaut and the first Ukrainian in space, he served as capcom for Gagarin's Vostok 1 flight. In August 1962 he piloted Vostok 4 alongside Andriyan Nikolayev's Vostok 3 in the world's first simultaneous crewed orbital flight; the two craft came within 6.5 km of each other, and Popovich performed the first musical piece in space, a Ukrainian folk song. In 1974 he commanded Soyuz 14, docking with the first military crewed space station Almaz (Salyut 3), and became twice a Hero of the Soviet Union.
Career Timeline
- 1951Graduated Magnitogorsk technical school and flying club
- 1954Graduated military aviation school; Air Force service
- 1960Selected for the first cosmonaut group
- 1961.4Capcom for Vostok 1 (Gagarin's flight)
- 1962.8.12–15Vostok 4: first simultaneous crewed flight; 6.5 km from Nikolayev
- 1966–68Trained for the Soviet lunar landing program
- 1974.7.3–19Soyuz 14 commander: docked with Salyut 3 (Almaz)
- 1978–89Deputy chief, Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center