Gherman Titov, Soviet postcard. Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov (1935-2000) was the second person to orbit the Earth. Launched in the Vostok 2 spacecraft, he orbited the Earth 17 times from 6-7 August 1961, just four months after Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. Titov ate two meals and slept in orbit before re-entering the Earth's atmosphere after 25 hours in space. He received many awards and decorations for his pioneering space flight. Included here is the Cyrillic for the dates of his spaceflight, the name of his spacecraft, the CCCP designation for USSR, and the word 'slava' (glorification). The orbits (blue circles) of Vostok 2 (gold star) and a laurel branch are also shown.