Vostok

Mission Profile

Vostok was the Soviet Union's pioneering single-seat crewed spacecraft, the vehicle that took humanity to space for the first time when Yuri Gagarin orbited Earth on 12 April 1961. A spherical reentry capsule attached to an instrument and propulsion module, Vostok had no maneuvering capability and the cosmonauts ejected and parachuted to Earth separately from the capsule during landing. Six crewed Vostok missions flew between 1961 and 1963, including Valentina Tereshkova's flight as the first woman in space on Vostok 6 in June 1963. Despite its simplicity, Vostok established the fundamental viability of human orbital spaceflight and gave the Soviet Union an early lead in the Space Race that was not surpassed until Apollo.