Third Russian To Fly In Space Dead At 74

He was a former lumberjack who left the Russian forests for a chance to rise above it all -- literally. Cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev, Russia's third man in space and, for a time, holder of the space endurance record, Nikolayev suffered a heart attack on Saturday in Cheboksary, the capital of his native Chuvash Autonomous Republic. He was judging the All-Russian rural sport games when he died. Andrian Nikolayev was 74.

Nikolayev first entered the record books in 1962, when his capsule, the Vostok III, orbited the Earth 64 times. In 1970, he again set endurance records, spending 18 days in orbit aboard Soyuz 9.

During his first flight in August 1962, Nikolayev was joined in orbit by Vostok IV, carrying cosmonaut Pavel Popovich. The two spacecraft flew in a loose formation -- about 4.5 miles apart -- as what Tass later called the "heavenly twins."

Nikolayev was crowned a "Hero of the Soviet Union" after his 1962 flight. The following year, he married the first woman in space, Valentina Treshkova. The first man ever to venture into space, Yuri Gregarin, was a witness to the union. Later, at a reception for the newlyweds, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, appointed himself "father of the bride." The couple had two children before they were divorced.

Andrian Nikolayev has gone west, far beyond the reach of political animosities. Happy landings, Andrian.

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