Popovich, Pavel

Born Oct. 5, 1930, in the village of Uzin, Kiev Oblast. Pilot and cosmonaut of the USSR; colonel. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union (Aug. 18, 1962, and July 20, 1974). Member of the CPSU since 1957.

In 1951, Popovich graduated from the Magnitogorsk Industrial Technicum and from a flying club. He became a military pilot after his graduation from a military aviation school in 1954. He was selected to be a cosmonaut in 1960. In 1968 he graduated from the N. E. Zhukovskii Air Force Engineering Academy.

From Aug. 12 to Aug. 15, 1962, Popovich, piloting the orbital spacecraft Vostok 4, and A. G. Nikolaev, aboard Vostok 3, carried out a joint space flight. Vostok 4 circled the earth 48 times in 70 hours 44 minutes, traveling a distance of approximately 2 million km. On July 3, 1974, the spacecraft Soyuz 14, with Popovich as commander and Iu. P. Artiukhin as crew member, was launched into earth orbit. On July 5, 1974, Soyuz 14 docked with the Saliut (Salyut) 3 scientific space station, which had been in orbit since June 25, 1974. The joint flight of the spacecraft and station lasted 15 days. The crew completed extensive scientific, technical, and biomedical experiments in flight. On his two space flights Popovich flew a total of 18 days 16 hours 14 minutes.

Popovich was a deputy to the seventh, eighth, and ninth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR. He received two Orders of Lenin and the Order of the Red Star. He has also been awarded the title of Hero of Labor of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.