Portal:Spaceflight/Selected article/Week 27 2008

The Vostok spacecraft (Russian: Восток, translated as East) was a type of spacecraft built by the Soviet Union's space programme for human spaceflight. It was originally designed for use both as a camera platform (for the Soviet Union's first spy satellite programme, Zenit) and as a manned spacecraft. The basic Vostok design has remained in use for over forty years, gradually adapted for a range of other unmanned satellites. The descent module design was reused, in heavily-modified form, by the Voskhod programme.

The craft consisted of a spherical descent module, which housed the cosmonaut, instruments and escape system, and a conical instrument module (mass 2.27 tonnes, 2.25 m long, 2.43 m wide), which contained propellant and the engine system. On reentry, the cosmonaut would eject from the craft and descend via parachute, while the capsule would land separately. (more...)