Vostok programme

model of Vostok spacecraft with 3-rd stage of launcher

The Vostok programme (Russian: Восто́к, IPA: [vɐˈstok], Orient or East) was a Soviet human spaceflight project that succeeded in putting a person into Earth orbit for the first time. The programme developed the Vostok spacecraft from the Zenit spy satellite project and adapted the Vostok rocket from an existing ICBM design. Just before the first release of the name Vostok to the press, it was a classified word.

Missions

Prototypes

A series of prototype Vostoks, including at least five with animals and some with test dummies aboard, were used to qualify the spacecraft for human flight. Dates given are dates of spacecraft launch.^[1]

Vostok manned flights

Order	Patch	Mission	Launch	Duration	Landing	Crew	Notes
1		Vostok 1	12 April 1961	1 h 48 m	12 April 1961	Yu. Gagarin	First man in space.
2		Vostok 2	6 August 1961	1 d 1 h 18 m	7 August 1961	G. Titov	First manned mission lasting a full day.
3		Vostok 3	11 August 1962	3 d 22 h 22 m	15 August 1962	A. Nikolayev	First simultaneous flight of two manned spacecraft.
4		Vostok 4	12 August 1962	2 d 22 h 56 m	15 August 1962	P. Popovich	First simultaneous flight of two manned spacecraft..
5		Vostok 5	14 June 1963	4 d 23 h 7 m	19 June 1963	V. Bykovsky	Longest solo orbital flight.
6		Vostok 6	16 June 1963	2 d 22 h 50 m	19 June 1963	V. Tereshkova	First woman in space.

Planned missions

One different (1963) and seven another original (going through to April 1966) Vostok flights were originally planned:

• Vostok 6A - pair to Vostok 5 group flight with female cosmonaut instead fulfilled Vostok 6 flight [1]
• Vostok 7 - 8-days high altitude flight for radiological-biological studies with natural re-entry from orbit [2]
• Vostok 8 - pair to Vostok 9 10-days group high altitude flight for extended scientific studies with natural re-entry from orbit [3]
• Vostok 9 - pair to Vostok 8 10-days group high altitude flight for extended scientific studies with natural re-entry from orbit [4]
• Vostok 10 - 10-days high altitude flight for extended scientific studies with natural re-entry from orbit [5]
• Vostok 11 - supplemental flight for extra-vehicular activity tests [6]
• Vostok 12 - supplemental flight for extra-vehicular activity tests [7]
• Vostok 13 - 10-days high altitude flight for extended scientific studies with natural re-entry from orbit [8]

All these original missions were cancelled in spring 1964 and the components recycled into the Voskhod programme, which was intended to achieve more Soviet firsts in space.

See also

• Vostok spacecraft
• Vostok rocket
• Voskhod programme
• Sergei Korolev

References

External links

• Korabl & Vostok Diary
• a cutaway drawing of the vostok
• Vostok manned space project on Encyclopedia Astronautica

Vostok programme Unmanned: Korabl-Sputnik 1 · Vostok-1K No.1 · Korabl-Sputnik 2 · Korabl-Sputnik 3 · Vostok-1K No.4 · Korabl-Sputnik 4 · Korabl-Sputnik 5 Manned: Vostok 1 · Vostok 2 · Vostok 3 · Vostok 4 · Vostok 5 · Vostok 6 Cancelled: Vostok 7 to 13, incorporated into Voskhod programme