Vostok & Voskhod

The Vostok ("East") and Voskhod ("Sunrise") programmes were the Soviet Union's first crewed spaceflight efforts, achieving a series of historic firsts that defined the early space race. Between 1961 and 1965, these programmes put the first human in space, the first woman, the first multi-person crew, and conducted the first spacewalk — all before the United States had completed its Gemini programme.

Vostok flew six crewed missions between April 1961 and June 1963. The spacecraft consisted of a spherical descent module and a conical instrument module, launched on a modified R-7 ICBM. On 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1 became the first human in space, completing a single orbit of Earth in 108 minutes — a feat that stunned the world and catalysed the American space programme.

Voskhod was a hastily modified Vostok designed to maintain Soviet firsts ahead of the American Gemini programme. It flew only two crewed missions. Voskhod 1 (October 1964) carried three cosmonauts — the first multi-person spaceflight — achieved by removing the ejection seat and flying without spacesuits. Voskhod 2 (March 1965) featured Alexei Leonov's historic first spacewalk, a dramatic 12-minute EVA during which his suit inflated dangerously, nearly preventing his return to the capsule.