ABOUT FACTS NET Space Craft

It's hard to believe that it has already been 44 years since the first manned satellite series was launched. Of course Sputnik started things off, but Vostok opened the door to humans in space. All of us who are old enough, remember how we stared in disbelief at the news telecasts that talked about Yuri Gagarin as he circled the earth. Of course many people were scared in this country. They had the idea that Gagarin had some sort of nuke on board that could be dropped on us defenseless Americans. Looking back on this now, it is almost laughable. There was hardly enough room for Gagarin let alone anything else.

Vostok 1 was launched on April 12, 1961 at 9:07 am Moscow time. It returned to earth on the same day. It's mission barely lasted half a day from takeoff to landing but it was to have an impact on the world that would never be forgotten. The crew consisted of only one man, Yuri Gagarin, a name that would would be forever enshrined in history books all over the world. As we all know, this was the first time man was ever in space. There are many people out there that believe that this was not the first try for the Soviets but that many men had been lost before Gagarin, in attempted space flights. There is no proof of this claim and if I were asked, I would have to say that I don't think that this was the case.

The Soviets were extremely happy about their feat and who could blame them. But what they did next was even more astonishing. They launched Vostok 2 a mere 4 months later with another man aboard. His name was Gherman Titov. He was launched on August 6, 1961, This time the duration of the flight lasted for a whole day. The cosmonaut returned on August 7, 1961.

The Soviets were really feeling their oats now and launched Vostok 3 on August 11, 1962. This vehicle contained Andrian Nikolaev. He circled the earth for almost 4 days. This must have been hard to do in such a small vehicle. The vehicle landed on August 15, 1962.

People were beginning to feel that the Soviets could launch rockets at will sending cosmonauts around the world in orbit.

Another Vostok was launch the day after Vostok 3, it was Vostok 4. Now the Soviets had two space vehicles in orbit at the same time. As a matter of fact, Vostok 3 passed near Vostok 4. The pilot of Vostok 4 was Pavel Popovich. Vostok 4 was launched on August 12, 1962 and remained in orbit until August 15, 1962, The landing was the same day as Vostok 3.

On June 14, 1963, Vostok 5 was launched. Aboard was Valeri Bykovskiy. His flight lasted almost 5 days. He returned to earth on June 19, 1963.

Valentina Tereshkova

The last Vostok was Vostok 6. It was another milestone in that the pilot was the first woman into space. Her name was Valentina Tereshkova. She was launched on June 16, 1963 and remained it orbit for almost 3 days. She was returned to earth on June 19, 1963.

The Vostok missions were important on many fronts. They provided the first man in space, the first woman in space, the first orbit of earth by a human and most import, the impetus for the space race. Without Vostok would we have ever gone to the moon?