The First In Space, Part II
The sixth manned space flight in history occurred on May 24, 1962 when Scott Carpenter, the fourth American in space, completed three orbits in nearly 5 hours aboard his Mercury Aurora 7 spacecraft. His flight was much like Glenn's, which attempted to prove that humans could work and live in orbit and successfully maneuver a spacecraft. Carpenter, who never returned to spaceflight, joined the Man-In-The-Sea Program sponsored by the Navy. There, Carpenter studied the adaptability of humans living underwater for thirty-day periods and beyond.
Only half way through 1962, it appeared that the United States was quickly making ground on the Russians. While Glenn and Carpenter's individual flights had not surpassed Titov's in duration, they had achieved orbit, stayed there for a while and made great advances in almost all matters of spaceflight. America also had the added advantage of having sent twice as many people into space (4) as the Russians (2).
That, however, changed rapidly on August 11 when Vostok 3(Falcon) lifted off from the Baikonaur launch complex deep within the heartland of Russia. Cosmonaut Andryian Nikolayev, during his nearly 4 day mission, completed scientific study of the human body in relation to weightlessness, and conducted guidance and communications tests. More importantly, his flight showed that Russians could sustain a human being in space for at least 4 days; a record that an American would not break until Gemini 4 almost 4 years later. Nikolayev flew once more aboard Soyuz 9 in 1970. This flight, which lasted 17 days, was not eclipsed in endurance until Skylab in 1974.
Remarkably, Vostok 4(Golden Eagle) carrying Cosmonaut Pavel Popovich was launched a day after Nikolayev's on August 12. Logically minded, the Western world assumed that this could mean only one thing: Vostok 3 and 4 were going to attempt a rendezvous. In reality though, Vostok 4 only passed within 4 kilometers of Vostok 3. Nikolayev's ship was completely automatic and had no maneuvering engines. Popovich quickly passed by after he entered orbit because he had no way of changing his own orbit to enter into Nikolayev's. Because of technical problems and misunderstandings between Popovich and ground crews, he landed a few hours after Nikolayev. His flight lasted about 3 days. Popovich would not return to space until July 4, 1974 when his Soyuz 14 capsule docked with the Salyut 3 space station. He remained onboard, along with Cosmonaut Artyukhin, for 15 days.
