Vostok 5

Vostok 5 was a manned space flight of soviet Wostokprogramms. Along with a double Vostok 6 flight was undertaken. The cosmonaut Valeri Bykowski remained for four days in orbit and set a new time record.

Crew

  • Valery Fedorovich Bykowski ( first flight )

Backup crew

  • Alexei Leonov

Support team

  • Boris Valentinovich Wolynow

Preparation

After the double flight of Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 in August 1962 was not clear how many more Wostokflüge would still take place, and how many of them would be manned by female cosmonauts. In the spring of 1963, then emerged that no new Vostok spacecraft were manufactured. The two remaining, single-seat space ships would be used for a dual flight with a man and a woman.

On May 11, Valeri Bykowski was nominated as a pilot. He had previously been substitute at Vostok 3. As a replacement pilots Alexei Leonov and Boris Wolynow were divided.

History of the flight

Vostok 5 was launched on June 14, 1963 at 14:58 Moscow time clock from the Baikonur space rocket launch and reached after a few minutes the orbit with 130 km perigee and 131 km apogee at an inclination of 65 degrees. The flight altitude was lower than planned and constantly decreased by atmospheric friction, so that the planned mission duration of eight days could not be reached.

Due to problems with the life support system, the temperature dropped in the cabin during the mission from 30 ° C to 10 ° C.

Two days after Vostok 5 was launched Vostok 6 with Valentina Tereshkova on board, the first woman in space. The two spacecraft approached each other to within 5 km, but then the distance increased progressively. During the initial period Bykowski and Tereshkova were in direct radio contact, and later had to relay stations on Earth convey.

The landing of Vostok 5 was carried out after five days at 14:06 Moscow time clock, 540 km north- west of Karaganda in Kazakhstan today.

Bykowski was scheduled catapulted to the ejection seat from the landing capsule and landed on its own parachute. About a hundred residents gathered around him, and he was taken in a car to the landing capsule, which had fallen about two kilometers away. From there he took radio contact with the rescue aircraft.

Importance

The five-day flight of Vostok 5 marked another new world record. Thus, the Soviets were far ahead of the competing Americans, who had previously reached with Mercury Atlas 9 several weeks a space flight of only 35 hours, which was marked to the end of system failures.

Despite problems with the landing Vostok 5 and Vostok 6 formed a successful completion of the Vostok program. It was already decided that the next manned flights with a further development, the would be carried out more seat Voskhod spacecraft. The Soyuz spacecraft, which has been completely redesigned, would be available only after several years.

The return capsule is on display in the Tsiolkovsky Museum in Kaluga.

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