700.000 Kilomètres dans le Cosmos
Translated from the Russian by Francis Cohen
Memoirs of Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov recounting his twenty-five-hour flight aboard Vostok 2 (6–7 August 1961), the first long orbital spaceflight in history. The narrative moves in two directions: a chronological account of the flight itself (launch, orbits, landing), then a retrospective look at the cosmonaut's training (military aviation school, rigorous medical selection, physical and psychological preparation). The book also covers Yuri Gagarin's historic Vostok 1 flight and closes with reflections on space exploration from a Soviet ideological standpoint.