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Vostok 3: Records File on the Space Flight by the USSR Citizen Andriyan Grigoryevich Nikolayev In The "Vostok-3...
Description
Official Soviet world record claims for Human Spaceflight Endurance, made to the FAI
Vostok 3: Records File on the Space Flight by the USSR
Citizen Andriyan Grigoryevich Nikolayev In The "Vostok-3"
Spaceship, August 11-15, 1962, Signed by Andriyan
Nikolayev. (Moscow: The USSR Tchkalov Central Aero Club, 1962).
A 9" x 12" book bound in light blue leatherette, gilt-lettered in
both Russian and English, with the embossed logo of the Central
Aero Club, inside covers in silk moiré. Printed on heavy cream
stock, each page within a decorative border. Text in Russian.
Twenty-seven numbered pages including official certificates,
telemetry charts, and calibration graphs, plus title page and
numerous additional pages featuring mostly color photos mounted,
recto only. Signed by numerous Soviet officials and twice by
Nikolayev. Very minor wear, very fine.This elaborate official dossier documents the historic Vostok-3 spaceflight, commanded by cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolaev, which took place from August 11-15, 1962. Issued by the V.P. Chkalov Central Aero Club, the certifying body of the Soviet Union's Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) liaison, this file records the technical and physiological data required to validate spaceflight records for international recognition.
Contents include the weighing certificate for the Vostok-3 spacecraft (listing its fully loaded mass of 4,722 kg), instrument calibration certificates (including a stopwatch verified by the State Committee of Standards), electrophysiological tracings of Nikolaev's biometric data during flight, calibration graphs for onboard sensors, and a biographical statement signed by Nikolaev. The title pages bear gilt-embossed Soviet emblems, and the file is dated 1962, the year of the mission.
Nikolaev's Vostok-3 mission was conducted in parallel with Pavel Popovich's Vostok-4, marking the first simultaneous dual-orbit human spaceflight. Over nearly four days in orbit, Nikolaev established a new endurance record for manned spaceflight, validating long-duration mission viability for the Soviet space program and setting the stage for the subsequent Voskhod and Soyuz programs.
Only a small number of such official Aero Club record files were produced, typically for Soviet internal archives and FAI certification. Survivors in private hands are exceedingly rare. From an important collection of Soviet-era Space history
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