May 6, 1962 - Maj. Gherman S. Titov, the Soviet astronaut, proclaimed his disbelief in God today. He said he saw “no God or angels” during his 17 orbits of the earth. “Up to our first orbital flight by Yuri Gagarin, no god helped build our rocket,” he said. “The rocket was made by our people. I don’t believe in God. I believe in man, his strength, his possibilities, and his reason.” Major Titov expounded on his atheism after he and his wife had spent nearly two hours touring the U.S. science exhibit at the Seattle World’s Fair. He praised the $6 million science display, saying he “liked it very much.” He was particularly interested in an electronic computer that sent an imaginary satellite into orbit.
