Gherman Titov

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Gherman Titov bigraphy, stories - Soviet cosmonaut

Gherman Titov : biography

11 September 1935 – 20 September 2000

Gherman Stepanovich Titov () (11 September 1935 – 20 September 2000) was a Soviet cosmonaut who, on 6 August 1961, became the second human to orbit the Earth, aboard Vostok 2, preceded by Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1. He was the fourth person in space, counting suborbital voyages of US astronauts Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom.

Titov’s flight finally proved that humans could live and work in space. He was the first person to orbit the Earth multiple times (a total of 17), to spend more than a day in space, to sleep in orbit and to suffer from space sickness. He was the first to pilot a spaceship personally and he made the first manual photographs from orbit, thus setting a record for modern space photography. A month short of 26 years old at launch, he remains the youngest person to fly in space.

In his subsequent life Titov continued to work for the Soviet space program, playing a major role in Spiral project where he trained to become the first pilot of an orbital spaceplane. However, after the death of Yuri Gagarin in a military aircraft accident in 1968 the Soviet government decided it couldn’t afford to lose its second cosmonaut, and so Titov’s career as test pilot ended.

Titov served in the Soviet Air Force and become General-Colonel, and in his final years in post-Soviet Russia he became a Communist politician. Despite having been chosen only second after Gagarin to fly into space, it was Titov who later proposed the Soviet Government regularly celebrate Cosmonautics Day on April 12, the day of Gagarin’s flight.

Additional reading

  • G. Titov, M. Calden, I am an Eagle. Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill, 1962.

Category:1935 births Category:2000 deaths Category:People from Altai Krai Category:1961 in spaceflight Category:Soviet cosmonauts Category:Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery Category:Deaths from cardiovascular disease Category:Members of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Category:Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Category:Communist Party of the Russian Federation members Category:Heroes of the Soviet Union Category:Heroes of Socialist Labour Category:Recipients of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 3rd class Category:Recipients of the Order of Lenin, twice Category:Recipients of the Order of the October Revolution Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Category:Lenin Prize winners Category:Recipients of the Order of Sukhbaatar Category:Recipients of the Order of Karl Marx Category:Recipients of the Order of the Yugoslav Star Category:Recipients of the Star of Romania Order Category:Pilot-Cosmonauts of the USSR Category:Recipients of the Order of Georgi Dimitrov Category:Heroes of the Mongolian People’s Republic

Awards and legacy

Gherman Titov was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, two Orders of Lenin, and numerous medals and foreign orders. He was bestowed the title of the Hero of Socialist Labor of Bulgaria, Hero of Labour of Vietnam, and Hero of Mongolia. Titov crater on the far side of the moon and an island in Halong Bay are named after him.

On 6 August 2011, the 50th anniversary of Titov’s flight, the reconstructed and expanded Gherman Titov Museum was opened in his native village of Polkovnikovo, Altai Krai.

Titov in fiction

In Arthur C. Clarke’s 2010: Odyssey Two (and the film adaptation 2010), the opening scene features a conversation between Dimitri Moisevitch of the Soviet Space Council and Dr. Heywood Floyd. When Moisevitch informs Floyd that the Soviets will be travelling to Jupiter on their new spaceship the Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, Floyd is initially puzzled, claiming that he thought the ship was to be named after Gherman Titov. In the book, Moisevitch just mentioned that it had been changed to Leonov; in the film, he replies that Titov has fallen out of favour, though he does not elaborate.

BBC Radio 4’s Afternoon Play on 12 April 2011, Titanium, features Titov as narrator during the training and flight of Yuri Gagarin. It was part of a week to celebrate the 50 anniversary of Gagarin’s flight.