Vostok programme

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Vostok spacecraft model
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Vostok spacecraft model
Vostok capsule diagram
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Vostok capsule diagram

The Vostok programme (Восто́к, translated as "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.

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

Another seven Vostok flights were originally planned, going through to April of 1966, but these were cancelled and the components recycled into the Voskhod programme, which was intended more towards achieving Soviet "firsts" in space.

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Vostok programme Vostok Spacecraft
Sputnik 4 | Sputnik 5 | Sputnik 6 | Sputnik 9 | Sputnik 10 | Vostok 1 | Vostok 2 | Vostok 3 | Vostok 4 | Vostok 5 | Vostok 6
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USSR (to 1991) and Russian government manned space programs
Active: Soyuz | ISS (joint)
In Development: Kliper
Past: Vostok | Voskhod | Salyut | Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (joint) | Mir
Cancelled: Zond (lunar Soyuz) | N1 rocket | Spiral | Almaz (incorporated into Salyut program) | Energia / Buran