The Vostok Programme

Yuri Gagarin (NASA)

Yuri Gagarin (NASA)

The Vostok programme ran from 1960 to 1963 and aimed to send a man into space for the very first time. This goal was achieved on 12th April 1961 when Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit planet Earth. Gagarin had been chosen from a group of 20 cosmonauts selected for the Soviet space program. His backup for the mission was Gherman Titov, who went on to become the second man in space aboard Vostok 2.

The spacecraft used for the programme had originally been designed as spy satellites for the Soviet military and were therefore very cramped inside. They were made up of two separate sections, the descent module and the instrument module. These were designed to separate upon re-entry, with the descent module bringing the crew safely back into Earth's atmosphere. Unlike American spacecraft, which descended to Earth with their crew onboard, Soviet cosmonauts ejected from their capsules at about 23,000 ft, using their own parachutes to land separately.

Gagarin's flight lasted less than two hours, but was another great success for the Soviet Union. During his stay in space Gagarin was promoted to the rank of Major and became an instant celebrity upon his return to Earth. However, his historic flight did not pass by without its problems. Upon re-entry the two sections of the spacecraft had failed to separate properly causing the spacecraft to gyrate alarmingly. This worrying situation continued for 10 minutes until the bundle of wires connecting the two sections burnt through, releasing the descent module.

Many Soviet officials did not expect Gagarin to return alive and some conspiracy theorists believe that there may have been previous attempts to send a Russian into space which ended with the deaths of the cosmonauts involved. Gagarin's own spacecraft included enough provisions for a 10 day mission just in case the retrofire engines failed and Gagarin was left to wait for his orbit to decay naturally. However, the retrofire engines worked perfectly and 1 hour, 48 minutes after launch Gagarin ejected from Vostok 1, landing safely in a farmer's field in Russia's Saratov region.

Four months later, in August 1961, Gherman Titov piloted Vostok 2 into space for over a day to test the effects of weightlessness on the human body. As he passed over America Titov broadcast a 'hello' message to the American people, who would not send a man into space until the following year.

Despite experiencing similar re-entry problems to Gagarin's mission, Vostok 2 was followed by 4 further missions, culminating in Vostok 6 in June 1963. Seven further flights had been planned, but were later incorporated into the Voshkod programme, with its own goal of achieving yet more Soviet 'firsts' in space.