June 15, 1999
Web posted at: 12:01 p.m. EDT (1601 GMT)

LE BOURGET, France (CNN) -- A former Soviet cosmonaut who once spent a year on the Russian space station Mir and flew aboard two U.S. space shuttle missions will head up Boeing's space division in Russia, the company announced.

Vladimir Titov, 52, who has logged more than 387 days in space, including nearly 19 hours of spacewalks, will be Boeing's director for space and communications for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States -- the group of republics of the former Soviet Union.

Titov, who made his first space flight aboard a Soyuz craft in April 1983, will be based in the company's Moscow office. Since his first flight, he has worked aboard Mir and taken part in two U.S. space shuttle missions.

Titov will be responsible for developing new business opportunities for Boeing and working with the aerospace giant's team members on the International Space Station and with its Russian and Ukrainian partners on the Sea Launch program.

Titov is considered a national hero in his land, a Boeing spokesman said. Four months after the cosmonaut's first space journey, the rocket that was due to carry him on his second launch caught fire just a minute before takeoff. Titov and a crewmate were ejected safely.

In December 1988, Titov and another cosmonaut, Musa Maranov, set a record for endurance in space, returning to Earth after one year, 22 hours and 39 minutes aboard Mir.

Titov was a mission specialist aboard the U.S. space shuttle Discovery in 1993 and took part in a joint Russian-U.S. mission when the shuttle Atlantis docked with Mir in October 1997. During that mission, Titov and an American astronaut spent five hours in space doing maintenance work on the Russian space station.

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