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Gherman Stepanovich Titov
Cosmonaut
Born	September 11, 1935(1935-09-11) Verkhneye Zhilino, Altai Krai, Russian SFSR, USSR
Died	September 20, 2000 (aged 65) Moscow, Russia
Other occupation	Pilot
Rank	General-Colonel, Soviet Air Force
Time in space	1d 01h 18m
Selection	Air Force Group 1
Missions	Vostok 2
Mission insignia

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

Biography

Titov was born in the village of Verkhneye Zhilino in the Altai Krai 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 6, 1961. The mission lasted for 25.3 hours and accomplished 17 earth orbits. His call sign in this flight was Eagle (Russian: Орёл). He landed close to the town of Krasny Kut in Saratov Oblast, Russia. A month short of 26 years old at launch, he remains the youngest person to fly in space.

His name refers to Saint Germanus and not to "a German".

Titov was a fine sportsman, and keen on gymnastics:

"Service in the Air Force made us strong, both physically and morally. All of us cosmonauts took up sports and PT seriously when we served in the Air Force. I know that Yuri Gagarin was fond of ice hockey. He liked to play goal keeper. Gherman Titov was a gymnastics enthusiast, Andran Nikolayev liked skiing, Pavel Popovich went in for weight lifting. I don't think I am wrong when I say that sports became a fixture in the life of the cosmonauts."^[1]

In August 1961, he was the first person to suffer from "space sickness" (i.e. motion sickness in space) and was also the first human to sleep in space. He slept roughly for one orbit, and was surprised to awake with his arms floating in the air due to the absence of gravity. After securing his arms under a security belt, he went back to sleep, overslept and awoke 30 minutes later than predicted by the flight plan. He states (vide English version of his biography) that "Once you have your arms and legs arranged properly, space sleep is fine ... I slept like a baby".

Following his space flight, 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.

Awards and medals

Gherman Titov was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, 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 and an island in Halong Bay are named after Titov.

Fictional references

In Arthur C. Clarke's 2010: Odyssey Two (and the film adaptation 2010), the opening dialogue/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 spaceship named for Alexey Leonov, Floyd is initially puzzled, claiming that he thought the ship was to be named for 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 favor, though he does not elaborate.

References

• Gavrilin, Vyacheslav Sportsmen of the Soviet Union;;

Additional reading

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

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