The Wrong Stuff by John Strausbaugh

Author:John Strausbaugh [Strausbaugh, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 2024-06-04T00:00:00+00:00

If Gagarin was a bad boy, Gherman Titov was badder. Following Gagarin to the stars and to stardom, he still competed with him and seemed determined to outdo him in every way. First, though, he had to survive the KKK—Korolev, Kamanin, and Khrushchev.

After Gagarin’s flight in April 1961, the Soviets didn’t put another cosmonaut into space until August. It wasn’t that they couldn’t. They just hadn’t planned for it, and, as surprised as the rest of the world was by their spectacular success, they spent the next few months arguing among themselves about what to try next. It’s a classic example of the difference between NASA’s careful march forward and the Soviets’ haphazard leaps and bounds. In July, Korolev was still arguing with Kamanin and others about how long the next flight should be. Korolev wanted another bold leap, a full twenty-four-hour mission. The others, still worried about the effects of long-term weightlessness, wanted a shorter flight. Khrushchev, as he often did, stepped in and shoved them forward. He asked Korolev if the next mission could happen by August 10, without explaining why that date was significant. Korolev agreed, and got his twenty-four-hour flight approved in the bargain.

On August 6, when Titov took off, Khrushchev’s thinking became clear. He sent word that day to the East German government to begin building the Berlin Wall. He hoped that a triumphant second spaceflight would be a happy distraction from that fraught and dangerous gambit. Actual construction of the wall began the following week, on August 13.

Titov remembered that on the night of Sputnik he’d been thrilled by the thought, “Maybe man can fly in space someday, maybe in 20 to 25 years.” Now here he was, less than four years later.

His day in space started out well enough. After the deep pangs of envy he’d felt when Gagarin was picked to fly first, he was giddy with joy. Using his code name, he kept whooping “I am Eagle! I am Eagle!” as he sailed overhead. At one point he said to anyone listening, “I wish you had it so good.” When he flew over Canada, he exchanged radio greetings with Gagarin, who was still touring the world. Gagarin joked that he’d wave out a window so Titov could see him.

More worryingly, the prolonged weightlessness that Kamanin had been concerned about did start making Titov feel “seasick.” He felt like he was upside down, which made him “giddy and nauseous,” and at one point he briefly fainted. Over the years, half of all space travelers have experienced this “space adaptation syndrome.” The inner ear needs time to adjust. Despite his queasiness, Titov tried to eat his programmed meals, squeezing pâté, pureed vegetables, cold coffee out of tubes—then throwing them up. He developed a headache, muscle aches, blurred vision. At one point he fell into a deep, exhausted sleep, only to wake up and be startled by the sight of his arms drifting weightless in front of him. For a split second he forgot he was in space.

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