[FPSPACE] Cosmonaut Pavel Popovich, sixth man in space, dies aged 79: reports

[Keith Gottschalk]

I now realize that I should have worded my email "the earliest flown
cosmo/astronaut who still survives". The helpful answers here indicate
that they are John Glenn, then Nicolayev, then Valentina T.

>>> Chris Jones <clj at panix.com> 10/03/09 2:52 AM >>>
On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 7:32 PM, David R. Woods <drwoods at stny.rr.com>
wrote:

>
>   Subject:
> Re: [FPSPACE] Cosmonaut Pavel Popovich, sixth man in space, dies aged
79:
> reports  From:
> Rex Hall <rex at rexhallassociates.com> <rex at rexhallassociates.com> 
Date:
> Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:06:19 +0100    To:
> Keith Gottschalk <gottscha at oakland.edu> <gottscha at oakland.edu>,
"Fpspace at Friends-Partners.
> Org" <Fpspace at Friends-Partners.Org>
<fpspace at friends-partners.org><fpspace at friends-partners.org>
>
> Tereshkova was born in 1937. There are many living cosmonauts older.
> Gorbatko, Volynov, Shatalov to name some.
> Also Tereshkova is cosmonaut 6. Bykovsky is cosmonaut 5 and is still
alive.
> Sadly a mistake on all fronts.
>
> On 30/9/09 17:01, "Keith Gottschalk"
<gottscha at oakland.edu><gottscha at oakland.edu>wrote:
>
> So this means that Valentina Tereshkova, retired textile workers &
> parachutist, is now the longest-living Soviet cosmonaut?  And John
Glenn the
> same for the USA?
>

This obviously hinges on the meaning of "longest living [...]
cosmonaut".
If you're measuring from the time of
birth you get one answer; if you're measuring from the time of becoming
a
cosmonaut, you get another.

For a while now we've had no space travelers alive who flew in 1961, the
year of the first human spaceflights.
With Popovich's death, no Soviets who flew in 1962 are left alive.  I
fear
we may reach the time when it will be
true that there is no one living who has walked on the moon.