Popovich Pavel Romanovich, cosmonaut: biography, photo

On January 19, 1969, at the Evpatoria Space Flight Control Center, Pavel Romanovich coordinated the actions with the moon. Instead of the required numbers and coding signs, he released a joke about his lunar landing on the open air. However, the leadership of NASA was not to jokes.

America is in shock

"Dawn, Dawn, I'm a Golden Eagle, ready to land on the Moon" - a voice from outer space sounded deaf and solemn. As soon as Richard Milhouse Nixon, the president of the United States of America, handed over this radio message of P. P. Popovich, he immediately grabbed the telephone receiver: "We just lost this race!"

Popovich Pavel Romanovich, cosmonaut No. 4

Among his colleagues in the detachment, he stood out with an excellent sense of humor, excellent vocal qualities and qualities of the leader. It was not for nothing that P.P. Popovich was commander of the first cosmonaut detachment, he was called here - "sergeant-major".

In many ways he was like Yu. A. Gagarin - the same kind-hearted smile, resourcefulness, excellent physical preparation. Respect in the detachment of astronauts, like his predecessor, enjoyed Pavel Romanovich Popovich. The biography of both cosmonauts was similar to the way many of their comrades passed: the vocational school, the flying club, the technical school of labor reserves, the flying school.

Space brotherhood

Six people remained in the first cosmonaut detachment after the cruelest selection. Each of them dreamed of being the first. Pavel Popovich also dreamed about this (photos are presented in the article). However, when Eugene Karpov, a leading expert in military medicine, asked him: "What do you think, Paul, who should fly first into space?", P. Popovich resolutely replied: "Yuri Gagarin."

It was Popovicha chief designer S. P. Korolev who asked to be in touch with the first cosmonaut of the earth. A born psychologist, Pavel Romanovich Popovich created a mood with which it was easier for Gagarin to overcome the difficulties of the first flight.

The first space launch

August 1962 year. With a break in one day, Andriyan Nikolayev and Pavel Popovich started the space flight. Both cosmonauts, A.G. Nikolaev with the call sign "Falcon", and Popovich Pavel Romanovich, whose call sign is "Berkut", demonstrated, according to Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, the friendship of the peoples - the Chuvash and the Ukrainian.

This was the first group flight in the history of world cosmonautics. The ship's exit into space orbit was regular. According to the design of the chief designer, the Vostok-3 and Vostok-4 ships had to approach each other as far as possible and conduct a communication session in the zone of visibility.

The bully from space

For negotiations with the ground, a whole complex of coded concepts was developed in the Flight Control Center. This also concerned the state of health of the cosmonauts. If the head hurts, the condition was coded as "rose", if vomiting and / or nausea - "thunderstorm". The real headache for the flight managers was the astronaut's next report on the Gulf of Mexico.

Popovich Pavel Romanovich reports: "I'm flying over the Gulf of Mexico, I see a strong thunderstorm." The questions of specialists became more insistent, what kind of thunderstorm, how long has it begun, and what is its strength? Pavel Romanovich in perplexity: surely the storm over the Atlantic was so much agitated by the cosmic authorities?

This unfortunate storm frightened the doctors and Sergei Pavlovich Korolev for obvious reasons. The influence of weightlessness on the human body has not been sufficiently studied. Weightlessness, in fact, was the main enemy of the first Soviet cosmonauts. Inhuman overload in training was, first of all, due to the lack of knowledge about it. Vestibular apparatus of astronauts was subjected to real torture during training before flights to space orbit.

Return to earth

The astronauts sat in one day, although Popovich Pavel Romanovich, cosmonaut No. 4, had to orbit another day. The reason was a decrease in the temperature of the air inside the ship, because of which there was a danger of failure of storage batteries.

The first successfully landed in the assigned area Andriyan Grigorievich Nikolaev. Strong wind far removed Pavel Romanovich from the calculated point of landing, since the astronaut's heavy space suit did not allow to control the dome of the parachute. Fortunately, everything worked out, and cosmonaut Popovich Pavel Romanovich successfully completed his first flight on the manned spacecraft Vostok-4, having received the title of the pilot-cosmonaut and the first Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union (1962).

Childhood of the Astronaut

From the reminiscences of Pavel Romanovich: "Soon after the space flight, I came to my native land. My countrymen came from all over the region. Before the blue twilight, the Dnieper sounded folk songs. "

And to this day in the village of Uzin, near the town of Belaya Tserkov, that in the Kiev region, there is a house in which cosmonaut Popovich Pavel Romanovich was born. Biography of the fourth cosmonaut of the planet begins on October 5, 1930, when the future cosmonaut, Major General of the USSR Air Force, honorary citizen of some cities of the USSR and Bulgaria, Popovich Pavel Romanovich was born in the family of ordinary workers, Roman Porfirievich and Feodosiya Kasyanovna Popovich. The family of the future cosmonaut lived rather poorly, but the children, and there were three of them in the Popovic family, were brought up in love and respect for each other, for work and for their parents. Villagers said that in the evenings in the house where the Popovic family lives, children's laughter and a beautiful song were often heard.

Near the village of Uzin was based military airfield. Here the life raged day and night, the planes constantly took off and sat down. The sounds of aviation engines caused admiration and delight in the young Pavel.

The Scorched Youth

The war in the village Uzin came in the evening, with sunset. There were no more songs and joyful laughter in the Popoviches' house, and the streets of the village were emptied.

One day an anti-aircraft fire was heard from behind the river, and in the sky a burning Soviet airplane appeared, rapidly approaching the ground. All residents rushed to the village outskirts, to the site of the fall of the Soviet military machine. The father of Pavel, Roman Porfirievich, got the killed pilot from the burning cabin. Serious burns, obtained during the attempt to rescue the pilot, seriously riveted his father to bed.

The boy remained the only breadwinner in the family, and all the difficulties of his adult life he could learn from a young age. From morning till late at night the guy worked in the field under the supervision of the German invaders. Sometimes it was possible to steal from under the nose of the fascists some food for themselves and their loved ones. In the house of the Popoviches, German officers lodged, one of whom decided to teach Pavel the German language and for each improperly pronounced word ruthlessly beat the guy with a belt.

In retaliation, Pavel pierced the Nazis all the wheels on a car standing in their yard. So, childishly, he fought the invaders.

The war tempered P. P. Popovich, strengthened his spirit. For him, the real heroes were the pilots. He himself wanted to fly and stubbornly went to his dream. But he managed to rise much higher.

Popovich Pavel Romanovich: short biography

• At the end of the artisan school in the White Church, in 1947, Pavel Popovich received his first professional education, with the qualification "carpenter of the 5th category."
• In 1951, the future cosmonaut finishes his studies at the Magnitogorsk Technical School of labor reserves and receives a specialty as a construction technician. At the same time, P.P. Popovich acquires the skills of piloting the U-2 airplane, after successfully training at the local flying club.
• Since 1952 Pavel Popovich is a cadet of the Stalingrad Military Aviation School of Pilots (VAUL), which was based since the evacuation in Novosibirsk.
• After the dissolution of the WAUL, the cadet P. P. Popovich continued his studies at the Military Officers' Instructor School of the Air Force in Grozny.
• From 1954 to 1957, Pavel Popovich served as a fighter pilot in the 265th Aviation Regiment in the Karelian ASSR. Then he becomes a senior pilot, and later chief of staff of the squadron.
• Since May 1958 Pavel Romanovich Popovich - senior fighter pilot of the 234th Guards Regiment.

Since 1959 Pavel Romanovich is a member of the cosmonaut detachment. The first flight to orbit he committed in 1962. Again, to look at the Earth from space, he happened in twelve years.

The goals and objectives of the second space expedition

1974 year. Before the end of the Cold War is still far away. Colonel Pavel Romanovich Popovich is preparing for the next flight. This time, as it was officially announced, the orbital space station "Salyut-3". In fact, a flight was prepared for the world's first special observant space military station Almaz.

The crew of the Soyuz-14, in addition to commander P. P. Popovich, also included flight engineer Yu. P. Artyukhin, the 30th cosmonaut of the USSR. Officially, the purpose of the 15-day joint flight was:

• Geological and morphological studies of the earth's surface;
• Medical and biological analysis of the impact of outer space on the vital activity of the human body;
• The study of natural phenomena associated with atmospheric formations.

However, scientific studies of near-Earth space were not the main task of space travel. Colonel P. R. Popovich and Lt. Col. Yu. P. Artyukhin are both military pilots, this was the first time in Soviet cosmonautics. This fact caused particular concern for US NASA experts. Until now, civil engineers were flying as flight engineers.

Pavel Popovich and his partner had a special mission - space exploration. With the help of a unique at the time equipment astronauts photographed the military facilities of the alleged enemy. The power of the lens was such that from space it was possible to distinguish a truck from a car. Thus, we can assume that Pavel Romanovich is the first space intelligence agent in the world. For this flight and successful accomplishment of the tasks set, the crew of Soyuz-14 as part of P. P. Popovich and Yu. P. Artyukhin was awarded the highest government awards. For Pavel Romanovich this was the second highest award of the Motherland.

The Fate of the Astronaut

Pavel Popovich was very popular among his colleagues. A simple and good-natured man, he always treated with humor any unconventional situation. He was able to find the right word and support a person in a difficult moment. Colleagues noted that Pavel Romanovich was not only the soul of the company, but also a high-class specialist, able to solve the most difficult professional tasks.

The astronaut's authority allowed him to be a People's Deputy in the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for 24 years and represent the deputy corps six times in the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR.

In 1993 Pavel Romanovich resigned. However, morale and restlessness did not allow him to sit on pension. Until his death, the pilot-cosmonaut was engaged in public activities, heading various funds and organizations, including international ones.

In Gurzuf, after a long stroke, at the age of 29 to 30 September 2009, at the age of 78 years, the pilot-cosmonaut No. 4 Popovich Pavel Romanovich died. The funeral took place at the Moscow Troekurovsky Cemetery. At the grave of an astronaut at any time of the year you can see live flowers in memory of a great man.