Vostok 2

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Vostok 2 (Russian: Vostok-2, Orient 2 or East 2) was a Soviet space mission which carried cosmonaut Gherman Titov into orbit for a full day in order to study the effects of a more prolonged period of weightlessness on the human body. Titov orbited the earth over 17 times, exceeding the single orbit of Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1 as well as the suborbital spaceflights of American astronauts Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom aboard their respective Mercury-Redstone 3 and 4 missions. Indeed, Titovs number of orbits and flight time would not be surpassed by an American astronaut until Gordon Coopers Mercury-Atlas 9 spaceflight.