Table of contents:

After Gagarin: What was the first in orbit of the second cosmonaut of the planet German Titov
After Gagarin: What was the first in orbit of the second cosmonaut of the planet German Titov

Video: After Gagarin: What was the first in orbit of the second cosmonaut of the planet German Titov

Video: After Gagarin: What was the first in orbit of the second cosmonaut of the planet German Titov
Video: RETT: There is Hope (Full Movie) - YouTube 2024, November
Anonim
The second cosmonaut of planet Earth German Titov
The second cosmonaut of planet Earth German Titov

57 years ago, the second manned flight into space took place - German Titov made 17 orbits around the Earth and spent a little more than 25 hours in orbit. His safe return to Earth became the same stormy holiday as the flight of the first cosmonaut in world history, Yuri Gagarin, and brought him no less resounding fame. Later, in an interview with German Stepanovich, there was more than once some regret that he did not become the first person to leave the Earth, because he had every chance for it. But still, in his cosmic biography there was something that he did for the first time in orbit.

Good health has become a disadvantage

It was he who had the chance to become the first. There were all the prerequisites for this: of all the members of the first cosmonaut corps, it was German Titov who was the most resilient, Yuri Gagarin was slightly inferior to him in this. But this was precisely the main reason that it was decided to send Gagarin to space flight first. The first flight was not supposed to last very long - only one orbit around the Earth, but the second time, if everything went well on the first, it was supposed to send a man into space for a longer time. And therefore, the healthier candidate was considered correct to be reserved for the second flight.

Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Gagarin

At the same time, Titov was Gagarin's understudy, and if before the flight the first cosmonaut felt even a little worsening, he would have to replace him. They were best friends, and German was glad for Yuri that he had such an incredible fate - to be the first to leave the Earth, but deep down he could not help but hope that the doctors would still not allow his comrade into space. That to become the most famous person on the planet will fall to him, and not to Gagarin.

But this did not happen. Yuri Gagarin went to the sky aboard the Vostok ship, and his backup stayed on Earth to wait for his turn …

German Titov in training
German Titov in training

Why is there an alarm clock in space?

Despite the fact that German Titov was not the first person in space, during his flight he did so many things in orbit for the first time that you cannot call him “forever second”. To begin with, Yuri Gagarin flew around the Earth only once and landed 108 minutes after takeoff, and Titov spent more than a day in space - German Stepanovich made the first long-term space flight in the history of mankind and by his own example proved that this is possible - so much time to be in weightlessness.

Start of the Vostok-2 spacecraft, on which Titov flew
Start of the Vostok-2 spacecraft, on which Titov flew

And this is not the only thing in which he became a pioneer in space. For a start, in such ordinary things on Earth as sleep. Yuri Gagarin had no time to sleep during the flight, while Titov, in the schedule compiled for him, had a specially set aside time for sleep - from seven in the evening to two in the morning.

After awakening, he was supposed to once again get in touch with the Earth, but it so happened that the cosmonaut slept through this communication session. Titov woke up at fifteen minutes to two, decided to take a nap for the remaining time and closed his eyes again … And opened them when the clock was already 2.35. On Earth, his silence almost caused panic, but after everything was safely resolved, this incident became an occasion for jokes that even on a spaceship built with the latest technology, there was no good alarm clock. Although, in fact, the second astronaut did not have an alarm clock at all.

Trains and rumors are the enemies of astronauts

The return of German Titov to Earth was also not without curiosities. He landed on the outskirts of the small town of Krasny Kut, very close to the railway, along which the train was passing at that moment. If the descent vehicle, in which the astronaut was, had landed on the rails, everything could have ended tragically both for him and for the people on the train. Fortunately, Titov "missed" a little by the railway tracks, and no one was hurt.

But the problems of the astronaut who returned from heaven did not end there. If Yuri Gagarin in a spacesuit, who landed near the city of Engels, the local residents were simply frightened and fled, then vigilant citizens took German Titov for a spy and locked him in the first house they came across. Later, apologizing to him, they made excuses that they considered the parachute reaching behind him to be a spy attribute.

Due to the fact that the landed astronaut was kept in a spacesuit for a long time, someone spread a rumor that during the flight he received a large dose of radiation. This rumor immediately began to acquire various details: someone said that Titov had gone blind, someone claimed that he had personally seen him completely bald. Fortunately, German Stepanovich himself reacted to all this gossip with humor.

German Titov in 1974
German Titov in 1974

It was easier for Gagarin

At the same time, German Titov was not only the first cosmonaut with whom funny incidents happened. During Gagarin's flight, his ship "Vostok" worked on automatic control, while Titov, for the first time in history, tried to control the spacecraft manually. And the first photographs and video footage from space were also taken by the second cosmonaut - Gagarin did not have any equipment for this, and Titov was handed a camera and a Konvas movie camera before the flight. The footage he took was not only the first photos and videos taken outside the Earth - it was also the first shooting in zero gravity.

German Titov with the same movie camera that he had on the spaceship
German Titov with the same movie camera that he had on the spaceship

The fact that these pictures and the video of the "forever second" cosmonaut made them did not become less valuable.

Continuing the story about this unique person, photographs from the life of Titov German Stepanovich, the youngest cosmonaut in history and the second Soviet man in space.

Recommended: