- Launcher
- Vostok
#vostok#vehicles
Vostok was the first Soviet system intended for crewed orbital flight. Its spherical return capsule protected the cosmonaut during atmospheric entry, and the Vostok programme delivered several major milestones of early spaceflight.
The spacecraft was not designed for the crew to land inside the capsule: the cosmonaut ejected before touchdown. The design illustrates how early practical compromises differed from later Soyuz spacecraft.
Key context
- Vostok 1 with Yuri Gagarin launched on 12 April 1961.
- The Vostok descent module was approximately spherical.
- The Vostok programme carried the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova.
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Sources & further reading
Spaceflightpedia. (n.d.). Vostok. Retrieved 21 October 2026, from https://spaceflightpedia.com/article/vostok
article text — CC-BY-SA · ◉ NASA photography — public domain · ✦ AI illustration — marked, generated from sources
