Gherman Titov

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Gherman Titov
Герман Титов
Titov in 1995
Born	Gherman Stepanovich Titov (1935-09-11)11 September 1935 Verkhneye Zhilino, West Siberian Krai, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died	20 September 2000(2000-09-20) (aged 65) Moscow, Russia
Resting place	Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow
Nationality	Russian
Citizenship	Soviet (until 1991) Russian (1991–2000)
Occupation	Pilot
Awards	Hero of the Soviet Union
Space career
Cosmonaut
Rank	General-Colonel, Soviet Air Force
Time in space	1d 01h 18m
Selection	Air Force Group 1
Missions	Vostok 2
Signature

Gherman^[a] Stepanovich Titov (Russian: Герман Степанович Титов; 11 September 1935 – 20 September 2000) was a Soviet and Russian cosmonaut who, on 6 August 1961,^[1] 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. A month short of 26 years old at launch, he is the youngest professional astronaut and was the youngest person to fly in space until 2021 when Oliver Daemen flew on Blue Origin NS-16 at the age of 18.^[2] Since Daemen flew a suborbital mission, Titov remains the youngest person to fly in Earth orbit.

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), the first to pilot a spaceship and to spend more than a day in space. He was also the first to sleep in orbit and to suffer from space sickness (becoming the first person to vomit in space).^[3]

Titov was the first human photographer in space:^[4] he made the first manual photographs from orbit, thus setting a record for modern first photos of Earth from space by a human (the first picture of the planet from space was shot by a V-2 rocket in 1946, launched from New Mexico). He also was the first person to film the Earth using a professional quality Konvas-Avtomat movie camera, which he used for ten minutes.^[5][6]

In his subsequent life Titov continued to work for the Soviet space program, and played a major role in the 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 could not afford to lose its second cosmonaut, and so Titov's career as test pilot ended.

Titov served in the Soviet Air Force, attaining the rank of colonel-general. In his final years in post-Soviet Russia he became a Communist politician. Despite having been chosen 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.

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