Gherman Titov

Gherman Stepanovich Titov
File:Gherman Titov.jpg
Nationality	Soviet
Occupation	Pilot
Space career
Cosmonaut
Rank	Colonel General, Soviet Air Force
Time in space	1d 01h 18m
Selection	Air Force Group 1
Missions	Vostok 2
Mission insignia

"German Titov" redirects here. For other uses, see German Titov (disambiguation).

Gherman Stepanovich Titov (Russian: Герман Степанович Титов) (September 11, 1935 – September 20, 2000) was a Soviet cosmonaut and the second person to orbit the Earth.

Personal data

Titov was born in the village of Verkhnie Zhilino in the Altai Region and went to school at the Stalingrad Military Aviation School. After graduating as an air force pilot, he was selected for cosmonaut training in 1960, and from there was chosen to fly the Vostok 2 mission launched in August the following year. His call sign in this flight was Eagle (Russian: Орёл). A month short of 26 years old at launch, he remains the youngest person to fly in space.

In August 1961, he was the first person to suffer from "space sickness" (i.e. motion sickness in space).

Following his spaceflight, Titov went on to assume various senior positions in the Soviet space programme until his retirement in 1992. In 1995 he was elected to the State Duma as a member of the Communist Party. He died of cardiac arrest in his sauna at the age of 65 in Moscow. He was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery.

File:Yurigagarin-1961-04-12.jpg

Yuri Gagarin in the bus to a launch pad just before his historic flight on April 12, 1961. Behind him, seated, is his backup, Gherman Titov.

Awards and Medals

Gherman Titov was awarded two Orders of Lenin, numerous medals, and foreign orders. He was also bestowed a title of the Hero of Socialist Labor of Bulgaria, Hero of Labor of Vietnam, and Hero of Mongolia. A crater on the far side of the Moon is named after Titov.

Quotes

Quote: "I believe in man — in his strength, his possibilities, and his reason."

Fictional references

In the film 2010: The Year We Make Contact, 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 traveling to Jupiter on their new space ship named for Alexei Leonov, Floyd is initially puzzled, claiming that he thought the ship was to be named for Gherman Titov. Moisevitch replies that Titov has fallen out of favor, though he does not elaborate.