Cosmonaut Pavel Popovich is a living legend. He has been named two times the Hero of the Soviet Union. Many Russians made him an idol 40 years ago at the start of the space era, when he made his first flight around the Earth.

“Flying to outer space,” Pavel Popovich says, “is just like falling in love for the first time. One can never forget the experience. You also feel the same during the first airplane flight. I first took off aboard a plane back in 1950 and I can still remember practically every second of the flight. No wonder then that I remember perfectly well to this day my space flights on board the spaceship Vostok-4 and also on board Soyuz-14 together with Yury Artiukhin to the Salyut-3 space station. Frankly speaking, sometimes I still fly in my dreams, and these are space flights.”

Pavel’s first instructor would often tell him that he was born a pilot. And he proved right. All the more so because Pavel dreamed of becoming a pilot since he was a small boy. It took him a mind-boggling effort to make his cherished dream come true.

The Second World War and the Nazi occupation of three and a half years were not at all conducive for the young boy to focus on his dream. One had to think of surviving in a situation of total grief and suffering. Pavel’s father was injured when trying to get a shot-down Soviet pilot from his fire-stricken plane. Pavel had to make up for him and take care of his near and dear, although he was only a small boy at the time. At night he worked at a factory, while in the daytime he went to school. Pavel’s childhood was over. Yet, he managed to withstand all the hardships and continued studying and going in for sports. Finally, he did make his dream come true. He became a first-class fighter-pilot and eventually advanced to Air Force Major-General.

It was because of his involvement with aviation that Pavel made it to the cosmonaut unit. The candidates for the first space flights were selected from among fighter plane pilots. Captain Pavel Popovich was one of the first future cosmonauts.

“Together with Yury Gagarin, I was part of a group of six cosmonauts who were trained for the first space flights,” Pavel Popovich says. “All six were equally ready for a space flight. All passed their exams with flying colors. But it was only one of us who could man the first spaceship. There was just no more room in it. And it was Gagarin who was destined to blaze the trail. The remaining five agreed that the choice was correct. But, of course, we all envied Gagarin – a little. When his flight was over, the news was not yet reported for the world to know, but we knew that Yuri had landed safely and was alive and well, we all cried with joy.”

Cosmonauts, Pavel Popovich says, recalling those far-away days, are a united family. They would often disagree with each other, but once things became serious, all controversy was forgotten. After all, they were all friends, advancing a common cause. All the rest was of little importance. And it could hardly be otherwise. The cause they were all at the origin of called for self-sacrifice and involved great life and health risks.

“On the first spaceships of the Vostok series, we had no emergency rescue system, so we ran a great risk,” Pavel Popovich recalls. “Yet, we did not hesitate to perform the assigned task and tried to avoid thinking of the danger we were exposed to. Actually, any person in his right mind fears certain things. But if on a space flight you lose control of your emotions, you’ll find it very difficult to accomplish the mission. So, the right psychological attitude is the main thing for a cosmonaut during a space mission.”

Pavel Popovich’s hour of triumph came in August 1962 when he and his fellow-pilot Andriyan Nikolayev made the first ever group space flight of two spacecrafts, Vostok-3 and Vostok-4. The flight lasted for almost three days – in the early 1960s that was a record-long time for a crew to remain in weightlessness. According to Pavel Popovich, he was most impressed by the staggering beauty of the Earth as seen from space, by extraordinarily beautiful space dawns. Similarly unforgettable was their return to earth. “The first thing I did on parachute landing,” Pavel Popovich says, “was to touch the soil and say: ‘Thank you for receiving me back.’”

Pavel Popovich was the first cosmonaut who sang during his spaceflight.

“I am an ethnic Ukrainian,” Pavel Popovich goes on to say. “We, Ukrainians, are very fond of singing. We sing on practically all occasions. Besides, at the time I had a very good voice, a heroic tenor. I was even invited to enter a conservatory, but I refused. I said I would fly and sing. And that was what I did. I sang when I was a fighter pilot, and then I sang when I flew into outer space. Andriyan Nikolayev blasted off on August 11th, and I followed him on the 12th. I said to him just before he took off: “Good-bye, see you in orbit!” When already in space and a little used to weightlessness, I told him: “Shall we sing, Andriyan?” “Yes, let’s try,” he replied. So, first we sang a song about Volga, the great Russian river, and then I began singing my favorite Ukrainian song…

Pavel Popovich was in space twice, and for his flights he was awarded two Stars of the Hero of the Soviet Union, the country’s highest distinction. His first award for his contribution to exploring outer space was the Order of the Red Star for preparation for the first manned spaceflights.

When the Soviet Union planned a flight to the Moon, Popovich was immediately involved in the preparation for the lunar expedition, yet the project failed to be implemented. Pavel Popovich recalls an incident connected with the aborted Soviet Moon mission, which prompted the Americans to call him a “space hooligan.”

“In the late 1960s, we were getting ready for a flight around the Moon,” Pavel Popovich says. “At the time we sent to the Moon the so-called probes, the very same Soyuz spacecrafts, but with no crew in them. Each one of such probes was to fly around the Moon and return to Mother Earth. A major problem was for the probes to land. Of all probes launched only one landed safely. When we realized we would never make it to the Moon, we decided to engage in a little bit of hooliganism. We asked our engineers to link the on-the-probe receiver to the transmitter with a jumper wire. Moon flight missions were then controlled from a command center in Yevpatoria in the Crimea. When the probe was on its path around the Moon, I was at that center. So, I took the microphone and said: “The flight is proceeding normally, we’re approaching the surface…” Seconds later my report – as if from outer space – was received on Earth, including by the Americans. The U.S. space adviser Frank Borman got a phone call from President Nixon, who asked: “Why is Popovich reporting from the Moon?” My joke caused real turmoil. In about a month’s time Frank came to the U.S.S.R., and I was instructed to meet him at the airport. Hardly had he walked out of his plane, he shook his fist at me and said: “Hey, you, space hooligan!”

Pavel Popovich admits he would be happy to go on yet another spaceflight now, even as a space tourist. “I would very much like to enjoy the sight of the Earth from a spacecraft and see if anything has changed on the surface over several decades,” he says.

Although he has long grown out of the “space age,” the job that he is currently engaged in, as energetically and enthusiastically as ever, is directly connected with space exploration. Today, Pavel Popovich is chief adviser with the Russian Institute of Cadastral Traversing, an agency that works in close contact with cosmonautics. It is safe to assert that he is still engaged in space exploration, his most cherished occupation, to which he has dedicated his entire life.