Gherman Titov

Gherman Stepanovich Titov (Russian: Герман Степанович Титов; 11 September 1935 – 20 September 2000) was a Soviet and Russian 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. Born in Altai Krai in western Siberia, Titov was the first spacefarer born in Asia. At 25 years old at launch, he remains the youngest professional astronaut and the youngest person to fly in Earth orbit.

Titov's flight proved that humans could live and work in space. He was the first person to orbit the Earth multiple times (a total of 17 orbits) 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). Titov captured the first photos of Earth from space taken by a human. He also was the first spacefarer to film the Earth, using a professional Konvas-Avtomat movie camera for ten minutes.

Titov continued to work for the Soviet space program. Under the Spiral program, he trained to become the first pilot of an orbital spaceplane. However, after the death of Yuri Gagarin in a fighter jet crash 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. Retiring in 1992, he became a politician of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and was elected to the State Duma in 1995. 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.