Word: popovich
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...public reception atop Lenin's Tomb in Red Square, six-year-old pig-tailed Natasha Popovich stood at her father's side and happily waved at the 80,000 people jammed in the square below. Then it was time for speeches; sure enough, the Russians could not resist the chance to turn space prowess into political profit. "The group flight in outer space is one more vivid proof of the superiority of socialism over capitalism," said Nikolayev, or "Falcon," as he called himself during his globe-circling orbits. Added Popovich. whose orbital name was "Golden Eagle": "Across...
...radio communication as they soared around the globe approximately every 88 minutes, were even able to exchange grins by means of direct television contact. Moreover, the cosmonauts reported to the ground that they could see each other in the distance through their portholes. At that time, Nikolayev and Popovich were about 50 miles apart. The apogee of Vostok Ill's initial orbit was 156 miles, its perigee 114 miles; Vostok IV circled at heights of between 158 and 112 miles...
...intervals, Nikolayev and Popovich reported that they unstrapped themselves from their harnesses and shifted weightlessly in their cabins, stretching their muscles as much as .their bulky orange space suits would allow. Through the portholes of their spacecraft, they photographed the moon and other celestial bodies. "The moon looked not flat, as from the earth, but like a ball hanging in empty space," said Nikolayev later. In their logbooks, they noted the temperature, pressure and humidity of their vehicles, as well as their own pulse and blood pressure. Soviet scientists on the ground received electrocardiograms direct from sensors attached...
Passing over the U.S., Nikolayev wished "peace and happiness to the gifted American people." While not performing their technical duties, they read or dozed; Popovich said he pored over physics books, even studied English. Before retiring, the two cosmonauts lullabied each other to sleep by radio-singing back and forth verses of a Russian spacemen's song, 7 Believe, Friends: I believe, my friends, That caravans of rockets Will speed us from star to star...
...cosmonauts with their families, and at play, wearing brief swimming trunks at a Russian beach resort. There were pictures of the two lolling on a grassy slope, riding a pedal boat, and even one of Nikolayev sniffing poppies. Handouts emphasized the human touch; the releases said that Popovich had christened his booster rocket Lastochka (The Swallow) and that Nikolayev had asked the ground station for the latest soccer scores. It was made known that Nikolayev's fellow cosmonauts, as a gag, slipped a sheet of jokes into his logbook before takeoff; the P.R. men announced that Popovich during...