Astronomy: Vostok 1

Vostok 1

Vostok 1 (Russian: Восток, lit. 'East' or 'Orient') was the first spaceflight of the Vostok programme and the first human orbital spaceflight in history.

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Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)

Vostok 1 Vostok 1 (Russian: Восток, lit. 'East' or 'Orient') was the first spaceflight of the Vostok programme and the first human orbital spaceflight in history. The Vostok 3KA space capsule was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 12 April 1961, with Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin aboard, making him the first human to reach orbital velocity around the Earth and to complete a full orbit around the Earth.

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Why Vostok 1 matters: Every mission and telescope pushes the boundary of what humanity can observe and understand. These instruments are our eyes and hands reaching into the cosmos. The orbital spaceflight consisted of a single orbit around Earth which skimmed the upper atmosphere at 169 kilometers (105 miles; 91 nautical miles) at its lowest point. The flight took 108 minutes from launch to landing. Gagarin parachuted to the ground separately from his capsule after ejecting at 7 km (23,000 ft) altitude.

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Source: Internal

Deep dive: Vostok 1 The flight took 108 minutes from launch to landing. Gagarin parachuted to the ground separately from his capsule after ejecting at 7 km (23,000 ft) altitude. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vostok_1 (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)