This rare color film entitled STAR BROTHERS takes a look at the Soviet space program in the 1960s. It’s an interesting counterpoint to NASA produced films of the same era. This, the second half of the film begins with footage of tracking radars and microwave communications, and at :38 a ground station with banks of computers and telemetry devices. A video tape recorder is turned on at :39 and a TV set is shown for playback. At :55 the route of the flight is plotted on a moving map. The cosmonauts are seen prior to the flight at 1:40 getting some exercise, shaving, and showering before getting dressed and having a final meal on Earth. At 2:40 the cosmonauts suit up. At 5:00 preparations for launch begin as Nikolayev boards his capsule. At 6:26 the launch is underway and at 6:47 the Vostok 3 streaks into orbit. At 8:26 the Soviets celebrate while at 8:38 TV footage is seen from space. At 12:00, Vostok 4 gets underway as Popovich boards his rocket. At 13;44, the launch proceeds. At 15:40, the world press reaction is shown in London, Berlin and elsewhere on newspaper headlines. At 18:00, Popovich’s family is shown waiting on Earth for him as he orbits. At 18:18, his route is mapped on a globe, while on Earth Moscovites listen to live broadcasts from space. At 18;40, pledges are made by farmers to make more grain and miners pledge to make more iron in tribute to Popovich’s efforts. At 21:40 at the computer center, mission control, the landing of two spacecraft is plotted. At 22:58, Nikolayev and Popovich are seen back on Earth, boarding a helicopter. The two are seen at 23:50 smiling, excited to be home, while at 24:12 a phone call occurs with Premiere Khrushchev in which he congratulates them on their achievement. At 25:00 the astronauts sleep on their way home from the recovery area. At 26:30, their plane is seen escorted by MiGs and the astronauts are fed by a lovely stewardess who is clearly a “fan”. At 27;10 they take control of the cockpit of the aircraft to fly back to Moscow. At 28:50 they land in Moscow and are welcomed in style by Nikita Khrushchev. They later make an appearance with him at Red Square at 30:40 where speeches are made in honor of the Motherland and this most recent achievement in space. Cosmonauts Gagarin and Titov are also shown. The film ends with Khrushchev giving the cosmonauts a tour of the Kremlin and images of the Aeroflot airplane that the cosmonauts flew on earlier (apparently — a deluxe plane reserved for leaders) with the narrator indicating that the future of space exploration is quite limitless.
Vostok 3 (Russian: Восток-3, Orient 3 or East 3) was a spaceflight of the Soviet space program intended to determine the ability of the human body to function in conditions of weightlessness and test the endurance of the Vostok 3KA spacecraft over longer flights. Cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev orbited the Earth 64 times over nearly four days in space, August 11–15, 1962, a feat which would not be matched by NASA until the Gemini program (1965–1966).
Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 were launched a day apart on trajectories that brought the spacecraft within approximately 6.5 km (4.0 mi) of one another. The cosmonauts aboard the two capsules also communicated with each other via radio, the first ship-to-ship communications in space. These missions marked the first time that more than one manned spacecraft was in orbit at the same time, giving Soviet mission controllers the opportunity to learn to manage this scenario.
Vostok 4 (Russian: Восток-4, Orient 4 or East 4) was a mission in the Soviet space program. It was launched in August 1962, a day after Vostok 3 with cosmonaut Pavel Popovich on board—the first time that more than one manned spacecraft were in orbit at the same time. The two Vostok capsules came within 6.5 km (4.0 mi) of one another and ship-to-ship radio contact was established.[
The cosmonauts of Vostok 3 and 4 did not attempt rendezvous. At one point the craft came within a few kilometers of each other and Popovich later reported at a news conference that he saw the other craft from orbit. Popovich is quoted as saying, “I saw it at once,” referring to seeing Vostok 3 in orbit. “It looked like a very small moon in the distance.”
The Vostok 3 and 4 spacecraft landed about 200 km apart, south of Karaganda, Kazakhstan. The mission went largely as planned, despite a malfunction with the Vostok’s life-support systems that meant that cabin temperature dropped down to 10 °C (50 °F). The flight was terminated early after a misunderstanding by ground control, who believed that Popovich had given them a codeword asking to be brought back ahead of schedule.
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
