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Initial planning for the flight of Vostok 2 was begun in early 1961, even before Yuri Gagarin's groundbreaking flight in Vostok 1. There had been a battle between the chief designer Sergei P. Korolov, and the more cautious military over whether this mission should last three orbits, or an entire day (17 orbits). Korolev got his way in the end. Gherman Titov was chosen for this flight in early June 1961. He prepared diligently for the next 60 days, to be ready for his space shot on time. As preparations continued after Vostok 1, Sergei Korolev and some of his staff were summoned to Premier Nikita Khruschev's dacha in Crimea. There, they were told to get Vostok 2 into space no later than 10 August 1961. The space team didn't know it then, but Khruschev intended to use Vostok as a ploy to divert attention from construction of the Berlin Wall, set to begin on 13 August. Vostok 2 lifted off from Baykonur Cosmodrome atop its R-7 based booster rocket, at precisely 06:00 GMT on 6 August 1961. An orbit inclined 65° to the equator, with an 89 minute period, was achieved. Titov's call sign was "Oriel". Soviet press announcements of the success in reaching orbit included the radio frequencies being used aboard Vostok 2. This permitted receivers around the world to tune in and hear Titov from space. Titov's greetings to the American people were picked up in Washington DC at 14:50 GMT on 6 August. He also sent greetings to the Kremlin at 07:38 GMT. Option: Hear Titov From Vostok 2 (Real Player file 258 kb) This flight also saw the very first planned TV broadcast from space. Titov even conducted a short "tour" of his Vostok capsule. Twice during the flight, on orbits 1 and 7, Titov experimented with maneuvering his craft manually, to the satisfaction of ground controllers in Russia. Titov experienced the first case of space sickness, caused by inexperience with weightlessness. He vomited after eating lunch, and continued to feel uncomfortable during the entire 17 orbit flight. Another problem encountered was a fautly heater which caused temperatures inside the spacecraft to fall as low as 43°F (6.1°C). The Cosmonaut went to sleep that night, and actually overslept by 35 mintues in spite of, or because of, his illness. He awakened at 23:37 GMT on 6 August, ate breakfast and began preparing for re-entry and landing less than 7 hours later. Retrofire occured at approximately 06:50 GMT on 7 August. There was a repetition of Gagarin's near disaster in Vostok 1 (4th entry down). The craft pitched and gyrated for about 10 minutes until the straps, tying the Vostok descent sphere to the service module, finally melted through. After this, the two parts separated and the sphere stabilized aerodynamically for the rest of the flight. Titov ejected and parachuted in; landing near Krasny Kut, Saratov, at 07:18 GMT. Total flight time: 26 hours 18 minutes. (Add the 1 hour 48 minutes of Gagarin's Vostok 1 flight, and the Soviets now had 28 hours 6 minutes in space, as compared with the Americans total of 30 minutes.) Gherman Titov remains to this day the youngest person EVER to fly in space. Titov was never to go into space again, being assigned to a spaceplane development project which was cancelled later on. By this time, he was considered too old for the Cosmonaut Corps. |
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Vostok
2 Launch |
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| Chief
Designer Sergei Korolev |
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| Titov
On TV From Orbit |
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| Parachute
Descent |
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| Vostok
On Ground |
| THE
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By: Andy Ellis - Director Yorkshire UFO Info On August 7, 1961, twenty-five year old Major Gherman Titov (1935-2000) blasted off in Vostok 2, to become the second Soviet cosmonaut to orbit the earth and return safely. He not only saw UFOs, but filmed them. One frame of that film, showing several UFOs dancing round the capsule, was published in a Soviet magazine years later. Scientist Romilyav Remenko, one of the chief designers of the Russian Star Wars program, says the Soviet Government knew UFOs were from somewhere else since Day One of the Space Race. |
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Scientist Remenko shows Titov's U.F.O.s photo on magazine cover. |
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Scientist Remenko shows Titov's U.F.O.s photo on magazine cover. |
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Enlargement of magazine cover showing Titov's U.F.O.s |
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Retired Army Colonel Boris Sokolov was in charge of Soviet secret UFO projects for 10 years. He says that he knew that the US military had constructed 40 UFO listening posts as part of its UFO research. |
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Some time later, ever the good Communist, Major Titov spoke at the World's Fair. Savoring his moment of glory, he recounted his experiences in space, vouchsafed to a privileged few. In a rather pretextual pronouncement, and on a triumphant note, he let it be known that on his excursion into space he hadn't seen God. Upon hearing of this exuberant argument someone quipped, "Had he stepped out of his space-suit he would have!" (From: Ravi Zacharias: "A Shattered Visage") Retired Cosmonaut Gherman Titov Passed Away in his Moscow apartment on Wednesday 20 September, 2000. He was 65 years old and died of a heart attack whilst relaxing in his sauna. The world has
lost one of it's great heroes of the Space age. |
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Vostok Project Patch *** At the end of the day, it's up to YOU to draw your own conclusions.
© 2000 Andy Ellis
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