Vostok 5
Vostok 5 — Valery Bykovsky's flight (June 1963) of nearly five days, still the record for the longest solo spaceflight; it flew in tandem with Vostok 6 and Valentina Tereshkova.
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- OKB-1 (USSR)
- Launched
- June 14, 1963
- Status
- Completed
Trajectory
- Distance from the Sun
- 1.01 AU
- Distance from Earth
- 158,727 km
- Distance from Venus
- 0.554 AU
Mission
Vostok 5 set a record that has never been broken. Valery Bykovsky launched on 14 June 1963, intended as one half of another dual flight — two days later Valentina Tereshkova would follow in Vostok 6, and for a time the two flew together. But while Tereshkova's flight made history as the first woman in space, Bykovsky quietly flew on, and on, alone. He stayed in orbit for nearly five days — four days and 23 hours — which remains, more than sixty years later, the longest solo spaceflight ever flown. It was not an easy record: high solar activity forced a lower orbit than planned, and the cramped Vostok offered little comfort for so long a stay. Two years later it was this mark a young American programme set out to beat — and did, when Gemini 5's Gordon Cooper and Pete Conrad passed it in August 1965. The solo record, though, still stands to Bykovsky.
- 1963Vostok 5 launchesLaunch
Valery Bykovsky begins a flight meant to pair with Tereshkova's Vostok 6, two days later.
- 1963Flying in tandem with Vostok 6Milestone
Tereshkova reaches orbit; for a time the two Vostoks fly together before drifting apart.
- 1963Landing — a record that still standsMission end
Bykovsky comes down after nearly five days, the longest solo spaceflight ever flown.
Images
Images from open archives · credit shown per image