Pavel Popovich


Pavel Romanovich Popovich was a Soviet cosmonaut.
He was the fourth cosmonaut in space, the sixth person in orbit, and the eighth person in space.

Biography

He was born in Uzyn, Kiev Oblast of Ukrainian SSR to Roman Porfirievich Popovich and Theodosia Kasyanovna Semyonova. He had two sisters and two brothers.
During World War II, the Germans occupied Uzyn, and burned documents including Popovich's birth certificate. After the war, these were restored through witness testimony, and although his mother knew that he was born in 1929, two witnesses insisted that Popovich was born in 1930, and so this became his official year of birth.
In 1947, he left vocational school in Bila Tserkva with qualifications as a carpenter. In 1951, Popovich graduated as a construction engineer from a technical school in Magnitogorsk, as well as receiving a pilot's degree.
In 1954, he joined the Young Communist League.
He was married to Marina Popovich, a retired Soviet Air Force colonel and test pilot. They had two daughters. They later divorced, and Popovich married Alevtina Oshegova.
Popovich was also a keen weight lifter:
He was also a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic 6th–11th convocations.
After his retirement in 1993, he lived in Moscow.
Popovich died in a hospital in Gurzuf where he had been taken following a stroke on 29 September 2009. Brain hemorrhage was cited as the cause of death. He is buried in Moscow.

Military

In 1952 he graduated from a course at the Stalingrad Military Aviation School near Novosibirsk. He then went on to train at the Military Officers of the Air Force Aviation Training School in Grozny, until 1954 when he joined the Soviet Air Force.

Service

Details are from Space Encyclopedia ASTROnote, unless otherwise noted
Aircraft types flown:
Details are from Space Encyclopedia ASTROnote, unless otherwise noted
DateCyrillicEnglish
12 May 1959Военный летчик 3-го классаMilitary Pilot, 3rd class
15 Aug 1962Военный летчик 1-го классаMilitary Pilot, 1st class
10 Nov 1960Инструктор парашютно-десантной подготовки ВВСParachute Instructor Air Force
30 Nov 1962Космонавт 3-го классаAstronaut 3rd class
24 Jul 1974Космонавт 2-го классаAstronaut 2nd Class

Promotions

Details are from Space Encyclopedia ASTROnote, unless otherwise noted

Cosmonaut

In 1960, he was selected as one of the first group of twenty air force pilots that would train as the first cosmonauts for the Soviet space program. The training took place between March 1960 and January 1961, and Popovich passed his final exams in Cosmonaut Basic Training on 17/18 January 1961. He was appointed as an astronaut on 25 January 1961.
He was considered as a strong candidate for the first spaceflight – but while Yuri Gagarin was ultimately chosen for the Vostok 1 flight, Popovich served as the flight's capcom.
From May to August 1961, he trained to fly on spacecraft "Vostok-2" in a group of astronauts, followed with training to fly "Vostok-3". This flight was cancelled. Between November 1961 and May 1962, he trained as a pilot for "Vostok-4". Between June and August of that year, he received further training in the maintenance of this spacecraft.
He commanded the space flight Vostok 4 in 1962 which, along with Andrian Nikolayev on Vostok 3, was the first time that more than one manned spacecraft were in orbit at the same time. His call sign for this flight was Golden eagle .
In January 1964, he became a cosmonaut instructor, becoming deputy commander to the 2nd group of cosmonauts.
Popovich was selected to command one of the Soviet Union's planned moon landings, and trained for this between 1966 and 1968, when the Soviet moon landing plans were scrapped.
In 1968, he was selected as commander for Soyuz 2, but after the death of Vladimir Komarov during the reentry of Soyuz 1, Soyuz 2 was launched without a crew.
in Belgrade
In 1969 he was a senior cosmonaut instructor, and became the Chief of cosmonaut training.
In 1974, he commanded his second space flight Soyuz 14 in 1974. Again, his call sign for this flight was Golden eagle . This flight was the first to the Salyut 3 space station.
In 1977, he received a post-graduate degree in technical sciences.
In March 1978, he was on duty in the Flight Control Center for Vladimír Remek's flight aboard Soyuz 28.
From 1978 he was the deputy chief of the Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center responsible for research and testing work. From 1980 to 1989, he was Deputy chief of the Cosmonaut Training Center. In January 1982, he was removed from the list of active cosmonauts, so that he could serve as Deputy Chief for Scientific Testing and Research at the Center.

Sociopolitical life

Details are from Space Encyclopedia ASTROnote, unless otherwise noted
Details are from Space Encyclopedia ASTROnote, unless otherwise noted
Date of AwardAwardNotes
17 Jun 1961Order of the Red Star
1962Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR
1962Honorable Radio Operator
1962Honored Master of Sports of the USSRa
1962Medal "For the Development of Virgin Lands"-
19 Aug 1962Hero of the Soviet Unionb
19 Aug 1962Order of Lenin
15 Nov 1962Gold Star Labor Hero of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
20 July 1974Hero of the Soviet Union
20 Jul 1974Order of Lenin
1982Order of Friendship of Peoples
13 May 1985Medal "For Strengthening Military Cooperation"
9 Apr 1996Order of Honourcfor services to the state, many years of fruitful activity in the arts and culture.
6 Oct 2000Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 4th Gradedfor services to the state and many years of fruitful work.
1 Dec 2005Ukrainian Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 4th classefor his significant personal contribution to the development and strengthening
of Ukrainian-Russian relations, promoting the rise of prestige of the Ukrainian
state in the world.
UnknownOrder of the Badge of Honor
UnknownMedal of the Republic of Cuba
Unknown9 Commemorative Medals

Notes:

Other honours

He received honorary citizenship of several cities:
Notes:
A bronze sculpture to Popovich was established in Uzyn.
The name of Pavel Popovich was given to a mountain ridge in Antarctica and to the Mars-crossing asteroid 8444 Popovich.
In 1991, he became director of the Institute Rossiyskogo for Monitoring of Land and Ecosystems, then worked as chairman of the board of directors of the All-Russia Institute of Aero-Photo-Geodesic Studies, dealing with the compilation of a land inventory of Russia using images from space.
He had also been the chairman of Ukrainian diaspora organisation in Russia.
He was awarded a Gold Tsiolkovsky Medal by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and a De La Vaux Medal from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.
In Ukraine there was a celebration of the 80th anniversary of the birth of the first Ukrainian astronaut, twice the Hero of the Soviet Union P.P. Popovich.

Ufology

In 1984 Popovich joined the Russian Academy of Sciences' newly created All-Union Investigation Committee for Anomalous Aerial Phenomena and became head of the Academy's UFO Commission.
In the 2002 SciFi Channel documentary Out of the Blue, Popovich relays a sighting of a UFO next to the airplane he was travelling aboard as he was returning home from Washington D.C. with a delegation of scientists. The UFO was seen by everyone on board the plane. It was perfect triangle shaped and emitted a very bright, white light at a distance of about and an altitude about above the airplane. The object had an estimated speed of travelling parallel to the airplane and passed and overtook the plane in about 30 to 40 seconds.
Popovich was the president of the UFO association of Russia.

Books