In June 1963, 60 years ago, the Soviet Union performed another “spectacular” in the cosmos, eclipsing American achievements in space. As was the case 10 months earlier, two Vostok spacecraft orbited the Earth with one establishing a new human spaceflight endurance record. Aboard the second capsule was the first woman to travel in space. Her time in orbit was more than all six U.S. human flights combined.
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.