In the summer of 1962, the Soviet Union stunned the world once again with a space spectacular in which two cosmonauts quadrupled the duration of a mission a year earlier while simultaneously orbiting two crewed spacecraft. The achievement appeared to extend the lead of America’s Cold War rival in the “Space Race.”
Soviet Air Force Major Gherman Titov became the second person in orbit, spending an entire day circling the Earth in 1961. Since he was able to sleep in space, it proved humans could not only work in the weightless environment, but live there too. However, in doing so, Titov also became the first to oversleep in space.
The dream of breaking the “chains of gravity” and traveling through space was realized six decades ago on April 12, 1961. At age 27, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin launched into a one-orbit mission around the Earth becoming the first person to venture into the cosmos. While it was another volley in the Cold War with the United States, it marked a historic achievement hailed around the world.