Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; landing 200 km southeast of Karaganda.

It was a rendezvous flight with Vostok 4. Both spacecrafts came close to 5 km (visibility), although the Vostok capsules had no maneuvering capability. They quickly drifted apart. Vostok 3 also conducted several scientific observations and further improvement of the space ship systems, communications (spaceship ground control and spaceship to spaceship), guidance and landing. There were no problems with his spacesuit, there was only a minor problem with the Tral telemetry system.

A final "first" for Vostok 3 was Nikolayev's taking of colour movie footage of the Earth from orbit and from the cabin interior.

The reentry was the same procedure as in the other Vostok missions.