Gherman Stepanovich Titov
Gherman Stepanovich Titov was a Soviet Air Force pilot and one of the original Soviet cosmonauts. On Vostok 2, he became the second person to orbit Earth, the first to spend a full day in space, and the first person known to experience space sickness.
- Born
- September 11, 1935
- Died
- September 20, 2000
- Birthplace
- Verkhneye Zhilino, Altai Krai,Soviet Union
Flights
1
Spacewalks
N/A
EVA time
N/A
In space
1 day, 1 hour, 18 minutes
Bio
Titov trained as a military pilot before joining the first Soviet cosmonaut group in 1960. He was Yuri Gagarin's backup for Vostok 1, then received the next crewed Vostok assignment only months later.
Vostok 2 launched in August 1961 and orbited Earth more than seventeen times. Titov photographed Earth, slept in orbit, manually controlled spacecraft attitude, and provided early biomedical data about human performance during a mission longer than one day.
His nausea during the flight led Soviet physicians to study what became known as space adaptation syndrome. After his cosmonaut career, Titov served in senior military, aerospace, and political roles, remaining one of the defining figures of early human spaceflight.