September 5, 1929 – Russian cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev is born

Russian cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev was born on September 5, 1929, and died July 3, 2004. Nikolayev was the seventh person to leave the earth aboard a spacecraft on August 11, 1962. This flight, Vostok 3, was also the first space mission to broadcast television images back to earth. Another fascinating aspect of this mission is that a day later the Russians launched Vostok 4. Both spacecraft orbited at the same time though they did not dock or rendevouz. But some in the United States space program thought they did.

Quotes:

Fellow cosmonaut Titov described Nikolayev as the “calmest man in an emergency I have ever known . . . which is necessary for the commander of a spaceship – a man of iron endurance and courageous determination.”
- cited in Into that Silent Sea (p. 177).

Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin described Nikolayev as “the most unflappable man in a crisis I know.”
- cited in Into that Silent Sea (p. 177).

“The main thing is to keep calm.”
- Nikolayev, cited in Into that Silent Sea (p. 177).

Cosmonaut Pavel Popovich During Vostok 4 Flight
Image credit: NASA