The Vostok 3KA (spacecraft) was the spaceship used for the first manned space flight, which took place on Apr. 12, 1961. It was manned by cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin. Launched from the Baikonur space launch area at 9:07 AM Moscow time (06:07 GMT). After completing one orbit, the Vostok 3KA landed at 10:55 AM (07:55), near the village of Smelovka, Saratov Oblast. Thus, Yuri A. Gagarin became not only the first man in space but also the first man to orbit the Earth. The perigee, which is the point in the orbit of a spacecraft or an artificial satellite that is nearest the earth, was 181 km, while the apogee (farthest from the Earth) was 327 km.
The Vostok mission lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes. The cosmonaut, wearing a pressure suit, was seated in an ejection seat. The life-support system was designed to function for ten days; continuous radio contact with earth was maintained during the flight. For landing, the spacecraft was fitted with a retrorocket which decreased the ship’s velocity so that it could transfer to the descent trajectory, after which the descent capsule was detached. After deceleration of the descent capsule in the atmosphere, the cosmonaut ejected from the cabin at an altitude of 7 km and landed by parachute. The possibility of the cosmonaut landing in the descent capsule was provided for.
The Vostok spacecraft was put into orbit by a Vostok-K (8K72K), which was a three-stage rocket engine. It was a further development of the R-7 rocket, which was used as the power plant for the Soviet first intercontinental ballistic missile. The first stage of this rocket had four boosters The Vostok spacecraft's weight with the final stage of the launch vehicle was 6.17 tons and the length was 7.35 m. While the weight of the final stage was 4.73 tons and of the descent capsule, which had a diameter of 2.3 m, weighed 2.4 tons. Vostok had a spherical descent capsule, which also served as the cosmonaut’s cabin, and an instrument module with on-board equipment and a retrorocket.
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| The Vostok spacecraft |
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| The Vostok being launched from Baikonur launching site, in Kazakhstan. |