MOSCOW: Soviet Russia launched its second man in space yesterday and was keeping him there circling the planet every 88.6 minutes in a spaceship he was piloting himself. Soviet sources said that astronaut Gherman Stepanovitch Titov would circle the earth 17 times for a total of nearly 25 hours in space, before landing back.

Moscow appeared to take the news in its stride. There was no visible excitement in the streets where loudspeakers were playing jaunty patriotic music between announcements.

When Major Gagarin made his flight a little while ago, groups of wildly excited students had converged on the Red Square carrying banners. But they are at present on holiday, and Moscow looked its normal Sunday self.

In a statement issued just before he was launched, Major Titov paid tribute to the achievements of “my great friend Major Gagarin”, who, he said, had blazed the trial into space. “It is difficult to express in words the feelings of happiness and pride which fill me,” he added. “I have been entrusted with an honourable and responsible task.”

The spaceship was almost certainly launched from the Soviet cosmodrome of Baikonur, in the Kazakh Republic northeast of the Ural Sea. Vostok II went up seven minutes earlier than Major Gagarin’s spaceship. It is 13.2 pounds heavier than Gagarin’s ship, but this may be due to the differing weights of the two cosmonauts.

The maximum height of Vostok II’s orbit is 27.9 miles lower than Gagarin’s spaceship, and it is orbiting the earth half-a-minute slower.

While Moscow radio announced the landing at 0900 GMT, at 1150 GMT it urged the listeners to “listen to the voice from space”. The short recording said:

Titov: “I am reporting. Flight is proceeding splendidly. All is well.”

Tracking station: “You are understood. You’re understood. We’re glad that all is fine.” — Agencies