Added 1 new A* page:Russian space pioneer Valery Bykovsky dies aged 84 said the BBC today: Bykovsky, a member of the inaugural 1961 class of Soviet cosmonauts, still holds the record for the longest solo space flight—5 days—that he set back in summer of 1963 aboard a Vostok spacecraft, the predecessor to the Soyuz capsules that are still in use today (the Vostok's spherical crew compartment puts it ahead on style in my book : P).
"Bykovsky's mission overlapped with that of Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. At one point, the two Vostok spacecraft were said to have come within 5km (3 mi) of one other.
Tereshkova is now the last person alive to have flown in a Vostok ('east' in Russian), the first generation of Soviet-crewed spacecraft."
("Soyuz" means "union.")
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