Aug 7 1961 - Gherman Titov Circles Earth

A post taking real life incidents from this day in history and my view of them as if they were happening today and what my honest view would have been then on that day ignoring hindsight or knowledge of how it ended.

The United States Space Agency called it 'an important technical achievement' which seems particular underwhelming as the USSR have taken Space Exploration to another level with Major Gherman Titov spending the whole day in orbit over the Earth aboard his Vostok II spacecraft. 
Information from Moscow say he is due to land tomorrow morning after completing 20 orbits around the globe.
Humans have taken another stride towards dreams of man landing on the moon and setting up bases to use as a launchpad for Mars and spreading out across our Solar System and beyond.
Just four months after the USSR launched the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space and with the USA having already sent an astronaut skywards, this is a wonderful time for people like me who look up to the night sky and wonder.
If only they were not on opposite sides, the USSR and Americans could achieve so much more if they combined their talents or at the very least they could stop the confusion and decide if it is Cosmonaut (universe traveller) or Astronaut (star traveller).