MOSCOW (AP) — Former Soviet cosmonaut Pavel Popovich, the sixth man to go into orbit, has died at age 78.
Boris Yesin of the Russian astronaut training center says Popovich died Wednesday of a stroke in Gurzuf, a resort city on Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
Popovich was born in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union. The first of his two trips into orbit was in August 1962 as the solo man aboard the Vostok-4 capsule. The launch came a day after another Soviet was launched into orbit, marking the first time that two humans were ever in orbit around the Earth at the same time.
Popovich next went into space a dozen years later in July 1974 as the commander of the two-man Soyuz-14, a 15-day mission to the Salyut space station.
No information on survivors or funeral arrangements was immediately announced.
