Program

Vostok program

The Vostok program (1961–1963) was the first Soviet crewed spaceflight program. Six single-seat Vostok craft carried, among others, the first man and the first woman into space.

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Updated: 13 Oct 2026

Replica of a Vostok spacecraft attached to the final stage of its launch vehicle.Real photograph · Pascal (Flickr user: pasukaru76) / Wikimedia Commons · CC0

Key facts

Agency: OKB-1 / Soviet space program (today Roscosmos)
Launcher: Soyuz
Mission: Apollo–Soyuz

Contents · 4

01Overview
02Vostok program missions
03How to cite
04Connections

The Vostok program was the first Soviet human spaceflight program. In six flights between 1961 and 1963 it put the first man (Yuri Gagarin) and the first woman (Valentina Tereshkova) into orbit and laid the foundations of the entire Soviet space effort.