Pavel Romanovich Popovich (Russian: Па́вел Рома́нович Попо́вич, Ukrainian: Павло Романович Попович, romanized: Pavlo Romanovych Popovych; 5 October 1930 – 29 September 2009^[2][3]) was a Soviet cosmonaut.^[1]

Popovich was the fourth cosmonaut in space, the sixth person in orbit, the eighth person and first Ukrainian in space.^[1]

Popovich was born in Uzyn, Kyiv Oblast, Ukrainian SSR^[2][4] to Roman Porfirievich Popovich (a fireman in a sugar factory) and Theodosia Kasyanovna Semyonova.^[4][5][6] He had two sisters (one older, one younger) and two brothers (both younger).^[4]

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 said that Popovich was born in 1929, two witnesses insisted it was in 1930, which thus became the official year of his birth.^[6]

In 1947, Popovich left vocational school in Bila Tserkva with qualifications as a carpenter.^[4] In 1951, Popovich graduated as a construction engineer from a technical school in Magnitogorsk,^[4] as well as receiving a pilot's degree.^[2]

In 1954, Popovich joined the Young Communist League.

He married Marina Popovich, a retired Soviet Air Force colonel and test pilot. They had two daughters but later divorced, and Popovich married Alevtina Oshegova.^[1][4]

Popovich was a keen weightlifter:

"Service in the Air Force made us strong, both physically and morally. All of us cosmonauts took up sports and PT seriously when we served in the Air Force. I know that Yuri Gagarin was fond of ice hockey. He liked to play goal keeper. Gherman Titov was a gymnastics enthusiast, Andriyan Nikolayev liked skiing, Pavel Popovich went in for weight lifting. I don't think I am wrong when I say that sports became a fixture in the life of the cosmonauts."^[7]

He was also a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic 6th–11th convocations.^[3]

After his retirement in 1993, Popovich lived in Moscow.^[5]

Popovich died in a hospital in Gurzuf where he was taken following a stroke on 29 September 2009. Brain hemorrhage was cited as the cause of death.^[2][3][8] He was buried in Moscow.^[5]

In 1952, Popovich 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,^[4] when he joined the Soviet Air Force.^[2]

Promotions

Details are from Space Encyclopedia ASTROnote, unless otherwise noted^[4]

More information Date, Insignia ...

Date	Insignia	Cyrillic	English
30 Oct 1954		Лейтенант	Lieutenant
24 Apr 1957		Старший лейтенант	Senior Lieutenant
30 Mar 1959		Капитан	Captain
05 Nov 1961		Майор	Major
11 Aug 1962		Подполковник (Podpolkovnik)	Lieutenant Colonel
30 Apr 1965		Полковник (Polkovnik)	Colonel
5 May 1976		Генерал-майор авиации	Major-General (Aviation)
20 Aug 1993		Retired from the Air Force

Close

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.^[2] 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.^[4] He was appointed as an astronaut on 25 January 1961.^[4]

He was considered 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.^[1]

From May to August 1961, he trained to fly on spacecraft "Vostok-2" in a group of astronauts, followed (between September and November 1961) with training to fly "Vostok-3". This flight was cancelled.^[4] 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.^[4]

He commanded the space flight Vostok 4 (Russian: Восток-4) in 1962^[2] which, along with Andrian Nikolayev on Vostok 3, was the first time that more than one crewed spacecraft were in orbit at the same time. His call sign for this flight was Golden eagle (Бе́ркут).

In January 1964, he became a cosmonaut instructor, becoming deputy commander to the 2nd group of cosmonauts.^[4]

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.^[1]

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 1969 he was a senior cosmonaut instructor, and became (by 1972) the Chief of cosmonaut training.^[4]

In 1974, he commanded his second (and final) space flight Soyuz 14 (Russian: Союз 14) in 1974.^[2] Again, his call sign for this flight was Golden eagle (Бе́ркут). This flight was the first to the Salyut 3 space station.

In 1977, he received a post-graduate degree in technical sciences.^[2][4]

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.^[4] 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.^[4]

Details are from Space Encyclopedia ASTROnote, unless otherwise noted^[4]

• From 1992: Chairman of the Boxing Federation of Russia.
• From 1994: President of the Yuri Gagarin Foundation; President of the Social Support for Veterans of the Armed Forces of the Union
• From 1996: Member of the Editorial Board of Space News
• From 1998: Member of the Editorial Board of the All-Russia scientific and technical magazine Flight
• From 1999: President of the Ukrainian Union of Cosmonauts
• Member of the Writers' Union of Russia.
• President of the Association of Space Museums of Russia (AMKOS)
• Honorary President of the International Association of Veterans of Physical Education and Sport (MAFIS)
• Honorary Chairman of the Society of Ukrainian Culture (Slavutich)

Details are from Space Encyclopedia ASTROnote, unless otherwise noted^[4]

Notes:

^a For setting records in space flight

^b Medal number 11117^[5]

^c For services to the state, many years of fruitful work in the field of culture and art (as President of the Association of Space Museums)^[9] (Presidential Decree No. 512 of April 9, 1996)

^d For services to the state and long-term fruitful work^[9] (Presidential Decree No. 1724 on October 6, 2000)

^e For significant personal contribution to the development and strengthening of Ukrainian-Russian relations, promoting the rise of the authority of the Ukrainian state in the world^[9] (Presidential Decree No. 1682/2005 dated December 1, 2005)^[10]

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 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) and an altitude about 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) above the airplane. The object had an estimated speed of 1,500 kilometres per hour (930 mph) travelling parallel to the airplane and passed and overtook the plane in about 30 to 40 seconds.^[13]

Popovich was the president of the UFO association of Russia.

Details are from Space Encyclopedia ASTROnote, unless otherwise noted^[4]