Vostok 3 - Background

Background

Gherman Titov had suffered space sickness during his record-breaking one-day mission aboard Vostok 2. This condition was unknown at the time, leading Soviet scientists to devote efforts to study the effect of spaceflight on the human body/.

In 1961, Soviet rocket engineer Sergei Korolev pushed for a three-day spaceflight as a follow-up to Vostok 2. Such a mission was opposed by the head of cosmonaut training Nikolai Kamanin and the cosmonauts themselves, who were concerned about unforeseen health effects that might result from extending space flights too quickly. Plans for a three-day mission only went forward when the approval of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was obtained; in the end, Vostok 3 would last nearly four days.

One objective of the missions of Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 was the study of how the reactions of Nikolayev and Pavel Popovich might differ during a series of tests under similar circumstances. The close orbits and near-rendezvous of the two spacecraft would keep the number of variables to a minimum, allowing the measurement of individual differences in adaptation to spaceflight. The Vostok spacecraft were upgraded to increase the volume of information collected about the flight conditions and the crew.

Training was expanded to condition cosmonauts against space sickness and select those candidate spacefarers deemed least susceptible. Informed by Titov's experience in Vostok 2, Nikolayev and Popovich thoroughly rehearsed their spacecraft maneuvers and other planned activities in a simulator.

The launch of Vostok 3 came over a year after the previous Soviet spaceflight, due in part to a rocket that exploded during an attempted satellite launch, damaging the launch pad. Soviet officials claimed that manned spaceflights were impossible for a time due to a high-altitude nuclear test by the United States—probably Starfish Prime.