June 14, 1963: The launch of Valery F. Bykovsky aboard Vostok 5, although causing the shock of earlier Soviet space spectaculars, still grabs headlines.

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It’s the morning of June 14, 1963, in Washington D.C.  For months rumors have leaked from the Soviet Union of coming space spectaculars, particularly that the Russians are going to place a woman in orbit.  In recent days, rumors have spread that an eight-day flight would soon be attempted.  By a man or a woman?  Who can say.  No one in the West even knows what a Vostok spacecraft looks like.  No one knows the identity of its shadowy “Chief Designer” who was sometimes quoted but never named in the Soviet press.

At 9:25 a.m. in Washington, the Soviet Union announces the launch of 28-year-old Lt. Col Valery F. Bykovsky, a former fighter pilot, aboard the cosmic ship, Vostok 5.  The launch took place nearly one-and-a-half hours before, at 8 a.m. EDT, or 3 p.m. Moscow time.  Thus begins the first Soviet manned mission since the joint flight of Nikolayev (Vostok 3) and Popovich (Vostok 4) ten months ago.  Nikolayev set an endurance record of 94 hrs. 22 min. in space, just short of four full days.  No doubt Bykovsky has embarked on a mission to break the endurance record.  And launch of a second Vostok, perhaps rendezvousing with Bykovsky, appears likely within a day or two.  This flight almost certainly will carry the first woman in space.

Bykovsky reports all systems are functioning normally.  On his fourth orbit, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev congratulates him from the Kremlin, and says, “You sound cheerful.”   TV from the Vostok shows a smiling cosmonaut.  He holds up his log book and demonstrates weightlessness by letting his pencil and other objects float.  

At midnight Moscow time, he radios, “And now I intend to have my supper and go to sleep.”

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An eight-day flight most certainly is the goal for Vostok 5.  The Chief Designer reportedly told him, “We shall ask you to do more.  There is no point in repeating a past stage.”

Yet no one in the West notices that the orbit, 108.5 by 138 mi., is slightly lower than usual for a Vostok.   Naturally the Chief Designer is not about to reveal in a public statement that the launcher’s third stage slightly underperformed resulting in the lower orbit.  The normal orbit for Vostok does not decay for 10 days.  This lower orbit is calculated only to remain stable for eight days, giving no safety margins if the flight is carried to its full length.  How far will the mission be pushed?