This week in rocket history, we look back at the first time two crewed spacecraft were in orbit at the same time: Vostok 3 and 4.

The goal of the missions was to further expand the capabilities of the Soviet space program which had recently sent the first man to space and set in-space duration records. Their uncrewed spacecraft were setting records, too, including lunar flybys and the first attempt to send something to both Venus and Mars.

The next challenge was controlling two spacecraft in orbit at the same time.

In 1962, Vostok 3 and 4 were launched one day apart. Vostok 3, carrying Andryan Nikolayev, launched on a Vostok K rocket on August 12 at 08:02 UTC. His spacecraft was codenamed Sokol, which means Falcon in Russian. His mission was pretty simple: attempt to function in weightless conditions and test the spacecraft systems. This was humanity’s fifth orbital spaceflight after all.  He also took color films of the Earth below and the inside of his spacecraft. A secondary goal was to communicate with the Vostok 4 spacecraft which would be launched a day after his own. He was intended to spend three days in space.

Vostok 4, with Pavel Popovich, did indeed launch the next day, on August 13, 1962, at 08:02 UTC. The spacecraft was named Berkut, which means golden eagle.

Nikolayev and Popovich were able to make direct radio contact when they came within five kilometers of each other immediately after Popovich’s launch. Because this wasn’t a proper rendezvous, merely a well-timed launch, the two spacecraft drifted out of communication range rather quickly. Nikolayev reported sighting the Vostok 4 spacecraft during the close approach.

One of the things that intrigued our writing team about this group flight was the careful discussion between different groups in mission control on what to do with Vostok 4. Popovich was having problems with his spacecraft’s life support system about a day after entering orbit. The cabin temperature had dropped from a borderline comfortable 27˚C at liftoff to a chilly 13˚C after the 29th orbit on the next day, August 13. On August 14, the temperature further dropped to 11˚C, and the humidity dropped to 35%. Ground control discussed whether to bring him back early or even extend it another day.

There were many factors to weigh in the decision, including detailed medical examinations planned for after the flight, concerns about his condition after four days in space, and pre-planned events at the Kremlin with Premier Khruschev and the pilot of Vostok 3, Nikolayev. Ground Control first asked Popovich if he was okay with extending the mission by a day despite the life support system issues, to which he enthusiastically replied yes. They eventually decided to bring back both Popovich and  Nikolayev on the same day, in part because Popovich had used life support consumables at a higher rate than Nikolayev had because Vostok 4 was originally only expected to spend three days in orbit, and Nikolayev was expecting a longer mission and so conserved his.

But the factor that was probably given the most weight in the decision to return early was caused by Popovich in Vostok 4 having inadvertently used a code phrase that indicated he wanted to be returned to Earth immediately because of a medical problem, specifically “space sickness”.

The phrase was “I see thunderstorms.” The Russian word for thunderstorms is groza. In fact, he had actually seen real thunderstorms, but Ground Control interpreted that as the code phrase even after he clarified his use of the phrase. Later reports suggest that it was believed he had experienced a bout of nausea, panicked, sent the coded message, and then subsequently covered it up when asked about it by higher-ups in the cosmonaut program because he was embarrassed.

One final factor was a 40-minute deadline from the apparent emergency call to set up reentry so that the two capsules would land near each other at the nominal landing site in Kazakhstan. If they had extended the flight, he would have landed at a reserve landing site that was mountainous. This would have made recovery difficult and compounded his condition after four days in space.

However, the die had been cast, so to speak, and both Vostok 3 and 4 were returned to Earth earlier than originally planned, landing within minutes of each other on August 15, 1962, after almost four and three days in space, respectively. The flight cleared the way for additional group flights (Vostok 5 and 6) and even later Soyuz group flights like Soyuz 2 and 3, Soyuz 4 and 5, and Soyuz 6, 7, and 8.

In a post-flight debriefing, Popovich cleared up the confusion and his superiors realized he would have been good to go for the full four-day mission. The “thunderstorms” call was truly a misinterpretation.

More Information

Vostok 3 (Astronautix)

Vostok 4 (Astronautix)