Duet in Space

The Russians this week took a giant new stride in the race toward the moon. From the Soviet rocketdrome in Central Asia, two manned space capsules rose into orbit around the earth and established visual and radio contact with each other. It was the first test of teamwork in space. Russian scientists said that the purpose of the mission was to check the physical effects of weightless flight on two cosmonauts orbiting under identical conditions and--more importantly--to gain experience in contact between vehicles in space.

The first cosmonaut to blast off was Major Andrian Grigorievich Nikolaev, 32, a country boy from the Volga valley who had been the standby for both Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov on their previous orbital flights. Soon after he was aloft in his spaceship Vostok III, Nikolaev, or "Falcon," as he called himself during radio transmission to the earth, was in touch with Soviet tracking stations and trawlers at sea packed with electronic gear, including some close by the U.S. east coast. U.S. and other Western radio monitors heard Nikolaev's voice loud and clear. Every 88 minutes, Vostok III soared around the globe at heights of between 112 and 156 miles. Falcon reported that he had eaten, slept seven hours, even unstrapped his harness and moved about the cabin.

Black, Black Sky. Exactly 23 hours and 32 minutes after Nikolaev's blastoff, just as he was breaking Titov's record by completing his 18th orbit, Moscow announced triumphantly that a second cosmonaut, Ukrainian-born Lt. Col. Pavel Romanovich Popovich, 31, had been hurled into space in a capsule called Vostok IV. Within an hour, the two space craft had established radio contact with each other, and Nikolaev reported to control headquarters that he was watching Vostok IV through his porthole. Plotting the radio signals, scientists outside Russia estimated that the two space craft were 74.5 miles apart, knew it would be possible for the two cosmonauts to jockey their capsules even closer together by using manual controls.

The two cosmonauts exchanged congratulations, then held a three-way conversation with Yuri Gagarin at the control center down on the ground:

"I watch the earth in the clouds," said Popovich. "To the right, in the illuminator [porthole], I see the black, black sky. My spirits are wonderful. Everything goes excellently."

"I hear you excellently," said Nikolaev. "My spirits too are excellent."

"Everything is fine, friends," said Gagarin, Russia's first spaceman, from the ground station. "Congratulations. Till we meet on the earth."

Following Soviet custom, there was no advance word to the people until each flight was safely underway. Once the announcements were made, Muscovites gathered by the hundreds in the streets to listen to loudspeakers and radios that blared from parked cars and windowsills. Soviet television screens picked up what Russia claimed were live telecasts from the space capsules. Nikolaev at first seemed in a trance during his showing, eyes closed, hands motionless. Later he came to life before the eyes of viewers, twisting dials, pushing buttons. Popovich was seen more clearly as he made entries in his log book.

Message from Maine. The Kremlin could not resist using the new space flights to make some propaganda, asked the U.S. to refrain from nuclear tests that might endanger the cosmonauts. The U.S., which had scheduled no tests anyway, quickly reassured the Russians. From his weekend retreat in Boothbay Harbor, Me., President Kennedy saluted Russia's "exceptional" feat, as well as the "courage of the two astronauts." said: "The American people wish them a safe return." In the year since Titov rocketed into orbit, the Soviet man-in-space program has been curiously grounded. Russia sent up only seven scientific satellites, while the U.S. launched Astronauts John Glenn and Scott Carpenter. But the performance of Vostok III and Vostok IV abruptly reopened the space race and led some scientists to speculate that Russia intended to put a man on the moon within four years. "Once they have achieved orbital rendezvous," said Kenneth Gatland of the British Inter-Planetary Society, "they have taken the vital step toward lunar flight."

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