Soviet cosmonaut who piloted the Vostok 4 spacecraft, launched Aug. 12, 1962. He and Andriyan G. Nikolayev (Nikolayev, Andriyan Grigoryevich), who was launched a day earlier in Vostok 3, became the first two men to be in space simultaneously.

Popovich, a herdsman in his early youth, graduated from a technical school in Magnitogorsk, Russia, U.S.S.R., in 1951, when he entered the army. He quickly transferred to the air force and in 1954 graduated from the Stalingrad Air Force College. He became a pilot, and in 1960 he was among the first to enter cosmonaut training.

Popovich was also the command pilot of the Soyuz 14 mission (July 3–19, 1974), on which he was accompanied by Yury P. Artyukhin. The cosmonauts docked their craft with Salyut 3, a space station that had been placed in orbit on June 25, and engaged in a 15-day program of scientific experiments.