The starry sky in all eras has riveted the attention of a person born on Earth. People were attracted and continues to be attracted by the mysterious cosmic distance. Humanity watched the first space flights with admiration and horror. German Titov became the second cosmonaut in the USSR.
Starting conditions
When there is talk about the quality of education in the USSR, many people of the older generation speak only positively about the school system. Yes, this position contains a significant amount of truth. Soviet people were trained so that they could navigate in a variety of life situations. German Stepanovich Titov made a space flight in August 1961. The Soviet pilot-cosmonaut spent more than twenty-five hours outside his home planet. At that time, it was an absolute record for staying in low-earth orbit.
Immediately after the announcement of the second space flight, many Soviet citizens had a question, where did the cosmonaut get such a “foreign” name? As it turned out, there is no secret here. The future cosmonaut was born on September 11, 1935 in an intelligent family. Parents at that time lived in the Kosikhinsky district of the Altai Territory. My father worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature at a local school. The mother was engaged in housekeeping and raising children. The head of the family treated the work of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin with great reverence. He chose the names for his children, the eldest son Herman and the youngest daughter Zemfira, from the characters in the works of the great poet.
In the service of the home country
German grew up and matured in a tough Siberian climate and harsh customs. He did not stand out among his peers. From an early age he dreamed of becoming a pilot and protecting the air borders of the Fatherland from any encroachments. Titov studied well at school. When it was time to choose a profession, he decided to become a cadet in a military pilot school. In 1957, after graduating from college with honors, Lieutenant Titov was assigned to a fighter regiment, which was based on the territory of the Leningrad region. In the service he was listed as an excellent student of combat and political training.
Three years later, after strict selection, Titov was enrolled in the cosmonaut corps. In those years, an uncompromising competition was going on between the USSR and the USA for going into outer space. German Stepanovich occupied the first positions in the cosmonaut corps. For the first space flight, the state commission appointed Yuri Gagarin, and German Titov became his backup. Three months after the first successful launch, it was his turn to fly into outer space. On August 6, 1961, the whole world learned the name of the next Soviet cosmonaut.
Recognition and privacy
For his space flight, German Titov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In the years that followed, he had no time to rest on his laurels. He graduated from the Zhukovsky Academy and headed a project to create an emergency rescue system for astronauts on ships of various types.
The personal life of the pilot-cosmonaut has developed well. He lived his entire adult life in marriage with Tamara Vasilyevna Titova (Cherkas). The husband and wife raised and raised two daughters. German Titov died in October 2000 from heart failure.
