Astronaut №2. German Stepanovich Titov
"To destroy a nation, you must first destroy it history. No story - no roots. And without the roots of life will not be! "
G.S. Titov
G.S. Titov
The future cosmonaut was born in the village of Verkhnee Zhilino (Altai Territory) 11 September 1935. His mom, Alexandra Mikhailovna, kept a household, and his father, Stepan Pavlovich, graduated from the Communard school and, becoming “sick” in pedagogy, became a teacher of literature and Russian in the local the school. In addition, he, being incredibly gifted, wrote songs and poems, was fond of painting, was engaged in languages. For a while Titov Sr. studied at the Moscow Conservatory and mastered the game of violin, mandolin and bayan. However, the times were difficult, and Stepan Pavlovich, not having graduated from a music institution, returned home to help his parents. Local residents also said that Titov Sr. was the first gardener of the village - he regularly planted seedlings, planted seedlings, and inoculated plants. He named his children (except for son Herman he had a daughter Zemfira) in honor of the heroes of the works of his beloved Pushkin.
Once, Stepan Pavlovich decided to teach his son how to play musical instruments. According to legend, little Hera didn’t endure his father’s insistent calls for tools and drowned the parental button accordion in the nearest pond. He was ashamed of his accomplishment, and for a while the lad tried to rehabilitate himself, stubbornly learning the violin. However, criticism of Stepan Pavlovich, who noted that “such sounds cannot be called a game,” put an end to the already weak impulses of the failed musician.
When the war began, Titov Sr. went to the front. At this time, Alexandra Mikhailovna with her children moved to her parents in a commune with the beautiful name "May Morning." Hera grew up the most ordinary boy - together with his peers, he went to the general school, followed his father to the front, worked up a sweat in the field. No outstanding abilities were noted for him, and by the way, he did not dream of being a cosmonaut. Maybe because there was no such profession yet. He himself spoke about this: “To be honest, I did not dream of being a pilot. Even the plane - the mail "maize" - saw for the first time in eighth grade. By the way, my maternal uncle worked as a pilot. But at that time I was not interested in his profession, but in the hefty oranges he brought to us from Ashgabat. ” Herman graduated from the first three classes of school in the May Morning commune, a seven-year school in the village of Polkovnikovo, where the family moved after the father returned from the war, and the secondary school in the village of Nalobikha. At school, Herman was interested in technology. The very first mechanism that revealed its secrets to him was the old film projection apparatus. The boy was sticking to the local projectionist until he explained in detail the principle of operation of the device. Soon Herman himself was already spinning films in a country club. Then there were long hours spent on a home-made radio receiver, the organization of a school radio center, and even the construction of a small power plant.
At the end of high school in 1953 Titov was drafted into the army. When he was asked at the Barnaul military registration and enlistment office where he wants to serve, the young man without hesitation chose Aviation. Subsequently, German Stepanovich explained it this way: “Everything was very simple. We lived very poorly, and from my clothes at the age of seventeen I only had a ski suit. And I was already a “couple”, the girls looked at me, and I was shy - a healthy guy, but there was nothing to dress on. Once, the husband of our teacher came to the village - a tie, gold buttons, shoulder straps, shiny shoes. Well, I asked: "Uncle, where do they give all this?" He replied: "In aviation."
At 1955, German Stepanovich graduated from the 9th Primary Military Aviation School located in Kostanay, and at 1957 with honors - the Stalingrad Military Aviation School in Novosibirsk. It is curious that in the first year, Titov was almost threatened by his incompetence - the instructors did not like the way he flew, and he was not allowed independent departures. But then the flight commander released him into the sky, and German Stepanovich remained to serve further. And three months before graduating from school, they wanted to drive him out again, but this time for discipline - the future cosmonaut went AWOL. Be that as it may, with the qualifications of a “military pilot” and a record in the description: “It flies confidently and boldly” Titov was sent to the combat units of the Air Force of the Leningrad Military District.
At 1957, a twenty-three-year-old senior lieutenant titov served in the village of Siversky. At this time, the young pilot met his future wife Tamara Cherkas. Tamara Vasilievna, who came from the Luhansk region and did not enter the medical school because of the Ukrainian dialect, worked in the canteen of the garrison. Young people met at the dances in the House of Culture, where German Stepanovich looked in along with his colleagues. Titov said: “I came to the Officers' Club by chance - I could not dance at all. I got up there on one of the girls on their feet, and that was all over - there was a lot of work, and I lost sight of her. Once between flights I went to our summer cafeteria for a snack, I look, and she hangs there. The girl sunk into my soul. And I, as a fighter, did not miss the target. We have no time to think about it, this bombers can walk in circles and aim ... We got married at 58, when we signed with Tamara, I wrote a letter to my father that I wanted to marry. He answered me: “I understood everything, you are already married. What choice did you not know, but the Titovs marry only once. ” The first holiday after the wedding stayed at home with his wife. And only a year later, in 59, they came to me in Siberia. ” The couple lived together for forty-three years, and all his life the astronaut was terribly jealous of the beautiful wife. Later, Tamara Vasilyevna became a real star of Star City - she drove the bike and the car perfectly, held fashion shows. Khrushchev and Brezhnev at receptions in the Kremlin invariably called her to dance. During the official visit of the Soviet cosmonauts to the United States, the leaders of the Soviet delegation did not let Tamara Vasilyevna into the White House - loving Robert Kennedy was too openly interested in Titov's charming wife.
1959 has come the year. The first Soviet satellites have already appeared in orbits, the word “space”, which more recently seemed to be a fantasy, sounded more and more often in newspapers, and huge research and production teams working around the dreams of Tsiolkovsky were working nearby. At this time, started a set in the first cosmonaut corps. Were selected there, as is known, the best pilots of jet aircraft. When a prospective pilot was asked to be selected for the astronaut team, he did not know for a long time how to inform his spouse. At that time she was preparing for the first time to become a mother, and German Stepanovich told her only that he could be taken to test pilots.
The first candidates were checked at the Moscow Central Aviation Hospital for such overloads that no one else had experienced. Doctors themselves did not know what awaits man in space, so the checks have become a real torture. During the tests in the pressure chamber when simulating a rise to fourteen kilometers in height, some experienced pilots fainted. From the hospital Titov wrote to his wife in great detail and often. With all the secrecy surrounding what was happening, all his letters reached. In them, in particular, the pilot reported: “I’m going to the Gestapo again ... Now I think that I’m a strong one, because I bear incredible loads.” Of the three thousand applicants, only twenty were selected. Thousands of strong guys were eliminated at the medical board for health, hundreds were rejected by the commission, dozens of them decided to refuse to participate, but Titov was successfully selected.
In March, 1960 he and his wife moved to Moscow. Twenty selected candidates were trained to fly at an accelerated pace, constantly complicating and increasing the load. They began to add psychological overloads to physical overloads, since it was unclear how a person would stand the test of solitude and silence of the cosmos. People in the Signal Chamber were completely isolated from the world - no information from the outside, no smells, no sounds. In the summer, 1960 from the group took only six - Valentin Varlamov, Pavel Popovich, Yuri Gagarin, Anatoly Kartashov, Andriyan Nikolayev and German Titov. All of them were very different people with dissimilar characters and tastes, and in a new environment they entered differently - some with ease, some with difficulty. German Stepanovich converged with people quickly. Colleagues loved him for the brightness of nature and versatility. Being a talented pilot, he adored literature and music, could read whole chapters from “Eugene Onegin” as a keepsake, recite poems by Lermontov and Mayakovsky, sang and painted well. During his studies at the design bureau, he made a number of technical proposals with which scientists agreed.
After the selection, the first six began to be prepared for flight at an accelerated pace. Hurried both in the Soviet Union and in America - everyone wanted to be first in space. A team of designers headed by Sergey Korolev worked on the flight support. They were supported by several ministers of the USSR and major defense officials, among whom were Mitrofan Nedelin and Dmitry Ustinov. In mid-October, 1960 issued a decree of the Council of Ministers and the CPSU Central Committee on the adoption of the proposal "to launch a spacecraft with a man in December 1960 ...".
It should be noted that by that time several “sevens” had already taken off (the P-7 missiles), but not all launches were successful. Only 19 August 1960 for the first time turned out to return alive from space the dogs Strelka and Belka. The pilots who were preparing for the flight immediately understood that their turn was approaching, however, after the August success, a series of unsuccessful launches began. Thirteen days after the signing of the order to send a man into space, in October 1960 at the site under the 41 number of the missile range there was a terrible catastrophe. In preparation for the first launch of the intercontinental rocket P-16, there was an explosion and a terrible fire that claimed the lives of several dozen missilemen. Nor was the chief artillery marshal, the commander-in-chief of the rocket forces, Mitrofan Nedelin, not saved. The rocket exploded for space flight was not intended, but the echo of this terrible tragedy postponed the time of space flight. Even with all his impatience, Nikita Sergeevich did not dare to give the Queen a command to launch a man into space at the time indicated by him. In December, Sergei Pavlovich resumed testing the G-7, conducted two launches and both failed. Only with the beginning of 1961, the period of terrible bad luck ended with Yagel and Korolev. In early February, the Yangelev strategic P-16 successfully took off, and in early March, from the space after a twenty-minute flight, the dog Chernushka returned alive and unharmed. At the end of March, a test flight was conducted with an asterisk and again - success. A press conference was held at the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences for domestic and foreign media, at which everyone with enthusiasm and admiration filmed Zvezdochka and Chernushka, completely disregarding those present in the hall Titov, Gagarin and the rest. Before the first manned flight into outer space, only half a month remained, but only a few knew about it ...
All subsequent events are shown and described thousands of times to the smallest detail. One has only to tell about the choice of the applicant for the first flight. The main parameters (physical data and readiness for flight) Titov and Gagarin were on an equal footing. Choosing the first cosmonaut, the party leadership viewed their questionnaires almost under a microscope. An important role was played by proletarian origin. There is a legend that Titov was supposed to fly first, however he became a backup because Nikita Sergeyevich did not like his name. Khrushchev believed that a person with the name of the dubious hero “The Queen of Spades” could not become a symbol of the country, as well as the personification of the era: “Will the people understand us, that we could not find a guy with a real, Russian name?”. The reliability of the Khrushchev verdict, by the way, no one has confirmed, but not denied.
Of course, the personal sympathies of the chief designer played an important role. According to the story by designer Korolev’s colleague Yevgeny Shpilnikov: “German Stepanovich was a good girl, a brave man and a good friend, who passed all the tests and tests. However, for the first flight, it was necessary to select a simpler and more reliable character from the position of precise execution of operations. Some psychologists involved in training feared that a person in zero gravity conditions could “go mad” and become inadequate in behavior. All members of the State Commission stood for Titov, but Sergei Pavlovich insisted on Gagarin. Obviously, Titov failed to open up so deeply to Korolev, as it happened with Jura. I suppose the mind does not understand this, only with the heart. " In addition, when choosing the first cosmonaut, the family drama played a negative role for German Stepanovich - in the course of preparation for the flight, his first child died. The boy was born with a heart defect and lived only seven months.
The famous cinematographer Vladimir Suvorov, who shot, in particular, the tests of the first Russian atomic bombs, as well as the launches of many astronauts, spoke about how the State Commission meeting was held before the first launch: “Interesting shots in which Gagarin reports full readiness and thanks for his confidence . Titov at this time is sitting with his head down. Herman can be understood - he, like the "main" cosmonaut, underwent pre-flight training in full, but he will go into space two days later, but the backup will remain on Earth ... The circumstance is not for the faint-hearted, it is psychologically harder to be a backup ... ". Yuri Alekseevich himself after the triumphant flight spoke of his own backup, whose name was still secret: “... A cosmonaut-two lived in the room with me. We existed on a single schedule and looked like twin brothers in everything. Yes, we were brothers - we were tied by one goal, to which we dedicated our lives ... He was trained, like me, and probably capable of more. Perhaps he was not sent on the first flight, to save for a second, much more difficult ... ". This is confirmed by the words of Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force for Space General Kamanin, who personally selected the first cosmonauts in his diary: “The only thing that keeps me from deciding in favor of German Titov is the need to have a stronger cosmonaut on the daily flight.”
Indeed, by that time everyone already understood - the second flight is simply obliged to be longer and, as a result, more complicated. Doctors vouched for three turns, to fly longer, in their opinion, was risky. The doctors were supported by astronauts, military, ballistics, Gagarin and Mstislav Keldysh - Vice-President of the USSR Academy of Sciences. But the applicant himself for a flight without diplomatic dodge said: “You need to fly for a day!”. This thought was expressed by Sergey Pavlovich himself. The last word was for the State Committee of the Council of Ministers on defense technology. At the meeting, Korolyov explained the advantages of the daily flight, which made it possible to land in the Trans-Volga regions - the same place where the village of Gagarin was in April. The chief designer noted: “Relocation of search groups will not be needed, everything has been worked out. And most importantly, it is possible to observe the human body for days under zero gravity ... If you urgently need to return the ship, this can be done at any time - space communications ships are on duty in all oceans. ”
Leonid Smirnov, former director of the rocket plant in Dnepropetrovsk, was appointed chairman of the state commission on launching Vostok-2. He immediately developed vigorous activity and insisted that the flight of German Stepanovich was at the beginning of August. In this regard, as a matter of urgency, they began withdrawing specialists and military testers from summer vacations, preparing equipment and cosmonauts. That summer there was unbearable heat, but the work was in full swing. The training of the cosmonaut number two practically repeated the ritual of Gagarin, only now Titov was the main pilot, and his understudy was Andrian Nikolayev. Many in those days were surprised at the absence of Yuri Alekseevich on the launch pad. Gagarin, however, unaware of the launch time, went on a new tour of the planet. In fact, on the eve of the launch of the Vostok-2, the experimental Korolev rocket took off. It was intended not for flights into space, but, nevertheless, the very circumstance turned out to be unpleasant and, as it were warned, the rocket technology does not tolerate fuss. Nevertheless, Titov behaved as if nothing terrible had happened. Many years later, German Stepanovich will say: "I just was firmly convinced that this will not happen with us."
On the morning of August 6, the 1961 commander of the Vostok-2 reported on the entire uniform to Leonid Smirnov about his readiness to perform the flight program and in response received permission to start. Remembering everything that happened on that August morning, Titov said: “What did I feel? Much, but not fear, because I firmly knew what I was going for ... In the very last seconds, for some reason, the Chief said: “If, before the flight, the astronaut feels that he is going for the feat, then he is not ready for flight”. The order of operations flew in my head in a whirlwind, my eyes glanced for the hundredth time around the instruments and inscriptions of the burning panels. He reported to the control center: “I am ready to fly ...”.
The launch launch of “Vostok-2” became the most important event in the life of German Stepanovich. In outer space, he stayed for one day, one hour, and eleven minutes. These four "units" gave scientists a lot of new information about which they had no idea before. German Stepanovich for the first time manually guided the ship twice. The first earthman made seventeen orbits around the Earth and saw seventeen cosmic dawns, had lunch, had supper and slept in zero gravity. By the way, according to the flight program, Titov had to sleep in the interval from 18: 30 to 02: 00, however, due to the lack of an alarm clock, the astronaut slept until 02: 30. When in due time German Stepanovich did not get in touch, they began to prepare for the worst in the Flight Control Center. The astronaut said: “The Khabarovsk station called me, but I did not get in touch, I had not been on the air for several hours already. As soon as the receiver turned on, a trembling voice of the operator sounded in it: “Eagle, Eagle! Where are you?". German Stepanovich also became the first photo camera operator of the cosmos. From his shooting is widely known color frame of the Earth in the porthole, which became the prototype of the popular song.
During the flight, the astronaut found serious problems with nutrition. When German Stepanovich began vomiting, he answered the question from the Earth about his state of health honestly: “Bad”. To stop the nausea, doctors advised him to close his eyes so that the vestibular apparatus would stabilize. The cosmonaut’s condition was completely normalized before the end of the flight. This was also noted by psychologists who, after each orbit, try to assess by the timbre of Titov's voice, what is actually happening behind his vigorous “All right!” Reports. Subsequently, Titov's vestibular disorders offered space medicine a good service — after this “experiment,” the astronaut training program was subjected to a significant correction.
The real danger, as well as being there, was where it was not expected. After entering the dense atmosphere, the ship of German Stepanovich began to descend by parachute onto the railway track along which the train was moving at that moment. It is difficult to think of a more absurd situation - to fly seven hundred and three thousand kilometers in space and crash into a train when landing. Fortunately, the ship Titov sat on a plowed field fifty meters from the railway line. The cosmonaut number two landed in the same Saratov region as Gagarin, not far from the town of Krasny Kut.
Having learned about the flight of comrade Yury Alekseevich, he interrupted his trip and returned to Moscow. The capital at the time applauded a new hero - thousands of citizens of the city welcomed the cosmonaut all the way from Vnukovo to Red Square, where a grand rally took place. Then a festive reception was held in the Kremlin with the astronaut Star Hero awarded. Twenty-five years were German Stepanovich at the time of his flight into space and this age record has not yet been broken. At the banquet, the spouses Titov managed to have a meal together, albeit in the presence of hundreds of spectators. Then they were taken to the state dacha, where they were left alone for the first time after the flight.
Each government returned from space gave the Volga with a special number that corresponded to the cosmonaut's ordinal number - for Gagarin 01, for Titov 02 and so on. Everyone was allocated a furnished apartment and paid a salary several times higher than the salary of an ordinary pilot. Titov’s status after the flight changed dramatically, he had many friends and acquaintances among artists and artists, he was often invited to private meetings and receptions. Test pilot and writer Mark Gallay wrote: “... It was far from simple to resist the naturally emerging cosmonaut around the triumphantly jubilant atmosphere of a world scale. And Titov did not succumb ... I am inclined to regard moral victory over myself no less than the readiness to fly into space. ” Nevertheless, German Stapanovich, being an impulsive man, began to allow himself extravagant actions. For example, during a visit to Romania at the time of the convoy with astronaut Titov suddenly jumped out of the car, asked for a motorcycle from his accompanying person, sat on it and sped away ahead. At the time, this act looked like unprecedented audacity.
A year after the flight, the Titovs' eldest daughter, Tatyana, was born. And two years later, the second daughter Galya was born. German Stepanovich said: “The eldest was born when I was at home, and the youngest was born when I flew to the Congo. Before the flight, he asked the doctors to put Tamara in the hospital. How did you feel! Just flew to the Congo, a Negro approached me and joked: “Congratulations, your daughter was born, named in honor of our president (Alfons Masamba de Bar) Alfonsina.” He returned to his wife in Moscow - she was crying because she was waiting for her son. Then they bring this miracle into the chamber - huge black eyes, black hair, and she shoots these sides with these eyes. And the girl is only the second day! I remembered the Ukrainian song: "Oh, Galino, oh, divchino ...". So called. "
1 December 1961 German Stepanovich visited his homeland. Locals recalled: “When he arrived at Polkovnikovo, it was snowing heavily. Many people gathered, a rally was organized in honor of the arrival. Everyone was very happy - because he is ours, from our village! We no longer experienced such admiration and happiness, such delight ... We heard about a detachment of preparing cosmonauts, but we thought that Gagarin alone would fly, but they would not allow the rest. And here they allowed! ” Starting with 1966, German Stepanovich took part in testing Su-7 and MiG-21, Yak-25РВ and Yak-28, Su-9 and Su-11. Titov was still friendly with Gagarin, they often traveled with their families to rest on the sea. Together with Yuri Alekseevich, he graduated from the Air Force Academy in the beginning of 1968. Zhukovsky. The diploma work, which Titov defended perfectly, was on the emergency rescue system (SAS) of a single aerospace aircraft. Titov extremely hard survived the death of a comrade who crashed 27 in March 1968 during a training flight. He said: “I heard terrible news while in Italy. I was first told about this by a local chauffeur when I was leaving Pompeii. I did not believe it, and my friends and I decided to go urgently to Sorrento, where our consulate was located. Already in Sorrento, we saw a television program. That same night I returned to Rome and at four o'clock I woke the head of our delegation with the words: “Can I fly to Moscow?”.
After the death of Gagarin, a Jesuit order appeared - Titov to ban all flights. For the astronaut, this was a real tragedy. According to his wife, "when he saw an inversion trace in the sky, he simply cried." Subsequently, German Stepanovich often had to fly, but only as a passenger. The only independent flight for many years Titov made during a private visit to America, and even then on a glider. In fact, astronaut number two was left without work. He began to be offered various leadership positions in Star City and in the cosmonaut corps, but German Stepanovich did not become “wedding general”. After graduating from the Military Academy of the General Staff. Voroshilov in 1972, he got a job in the General Directorate of space assets. At 1979, he became the first deputy chief of GUKOS for research and development, and in this position he worked until 1991. In addition, he was the initiator of the construction of the sea ships of the measuring complex, in particular, he took part in the development of the Marshal Nedelin ship.
Also, Titov had a close relationship with the Dneprovsky Rocket and Space Center, in which military spacecraft and space vehicles were built, as well as powerful strategic intercontinental missiles. At that time, a new generation of reconnaissance spacecraft was born there, with a special focus on the Tselina-2. The developers faced the problem of choosing the chairman of the state commission for testing the facility together with the new space carrier Zenit. Preference was given to German Stepanovich - not only as a certified engineer, a skilled leader and a brilliant tester, but also as an extremely honest and courageous person. The choice of Lieutenant-General Titov was also with a long-range view - Zenit was created for future manned flights to replace the G-7.
Flight design tests of the Zenith did not go smoothly, and Titov had to show incredible perseverance. The cosmonaut spends a lot of time traveling. He himself said: “I almost did not see my children. He left - they slept, he came - they slept. Tamara once told me: “You know, Galina seems to be getting married” - “How is it, and the institute?” - “Yes, she finished it a long time ago” ... Once I calculated that for the whole service I was on a business trip every second day ” . The first start at a meeting of the State Commission was appointed on Cosmonautics Day, but did not take place for technical reasons. The first flight of “Zenith” was held the next day - 13 April 1985. Vladimir Komanov, the former chief designer of the rocket and space sector, said: “When the Zenith was first launched, the incredible happened - the team of the payload compartment coincided with the emergency termination of the flight. Some thousandths of a millisecond, but they let us down - we decided that we put a payload into orbit. We rejoice, hug, everywhere we report on a successful launch. Soon a request comes from the air defense forces: “We are observing unidentified objects in an off-design orbit. We ask for clarification. For air defense came from the Foreign Ministry request: "Americans are asking what kind of fragments in orbit?" Titov gave the telemetry one day. Everything became clear the next day. Titov gathered everyone, took the floor and called things by their names. At the end, he said: “It’s time to come when we are asked for the funds spent by the state. Many can get to places not so remote, for example, to Magadan, including me. ” The hall held its breath, and German Stepanovich continued: “Consider only that we will sit differently - I, as an honorary citizen of Magadan ...”. Even in spite of the tragedy of the situation, everyone in the hall burst out laughing. Titov was able to defuse the situation. "
A small satellite was installed on the third flight vehicle, and the missing mass was replaced with “sand”. The launch was successful, the rocket officers were joking - the sand was delivered to orbit for the first time. The fourth launch was marked by a new scandal - at the top they were wondering why the fairing did not open, and where did the energy industry come from to pull the second stage into orbit? The chairman of the State Commission “rebus” of the Dneprovtsy guessed quickly - the Southerners were cunning, and their new carrier had enormous reserves. The latest launches confirmed that Zenit successfully launched payloads weighing fourteen tons or more. With each new launch authority Titov grew. The astronaut instantly grasped the essence of the problem, understood the nuances of the most complex technology, talked on an equal footing with testers and developers, general and chief, generals and academics. Subsequently, "Zenit" flew "without a bitch, without a hitch." After the tenth launch, the chairman of the State Commission submitted to the government a proposal for early termination of the tests and commissioning. For his contribution to the creation of the carrier of the 21st century, German Stepanovich won the Lenin Prize at 1988.
The collapse of the country and the "new" views on the space program, announced at the suggestion of the liberals as an unnecessary burden for the state budget, Titov experienced hard. Overnight, the high professionals turned out to be not needed by the country, and in October 1991 the famous astronaut retired and engaged in public activities. Subsequently, he was elected to the State Duma of various convocations. Regarding perestroika, Titov said: “Maybe the system needed to be changed, but the country's economy shouldn’t be ruined exactly ... We were brought up by law-abiding. And we, probably, were too trusting. When the Soviet Union began to fall apart, they trusted in the usual inertia. Some slogans were proclaimed, decrees were issued, and we thought that all this was within the framework of laws. They looked through, missed! .. I am not tired of repeating that cosmonautics is the most important branch of the national economy. And if the economy is on its side, then there is also cosmonautics too. It cannot be divorced from the general state of science and economy in the country! There was the Academy of Sciences, powerful scientific, sectoral, departmental institutes worked for space. What now? Only pitiful remnants. I say, slightly altering Lermontov: “I’m sad to look at this generation.”
In the period from 1991 to 1992, Titov was the first deputy head of the Space Units of the Ministry of Defense. At 1992, German Stepanovich became president of the International Science and Technology Center for Electronics and Cosmonautics, and vice-chairman of the board of the Russian Aerospace Complex Conversion Center worked with 1993 through 1995. Finally, in 1999, German Stepanovich was elected president of the Federation of Cosmonautics. Until the last day, German Stepanovich lived with the hope of setting another record, beating the result of the American cosmonaut Glenn, who at the age of seventy-seven years old made a second space flight. To do this, Titov had to live to at least seventy-eight.
11 September 2000 celebrated his cosmonaut for sixty-five years, and after nine days German Stepanovich was gone - he had a heart attack. Undoubtedly, for a trained organism who was constantly under medical supervision and control, it was an untimely death. There is only one explanation - depression and, as a result, a general disorder. The legendary space explorer was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Based on materials from http://sib.fm and http://secrethistory.su.
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