He was a cosmonaut who held the still-unbroken record for the longest solo spaceflight, five days in space aboard the Vostok 5, orbiting the Earth 82 times. He first flew aboard a Vostok 5 spacecraft in June 1963 and took part in two more USSR missions. He was among the first group of Soviet cosmonauts, along with Yuri Gagarin, the first person to travel to space. During his career, he spent a total of nearly 21 days in space. He left the cosmonaut corps in 1982, and later worked at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center at Star City near Moscow.