The Vostok launch vehicle was an upgrade of the R-7 series, developed in Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov’s design bureau. This was the rocket that kicked off the Space Age.
Model of the Vostok launch vehicle
Creation period
1988
Place of сreation
Kirov
Dimensions
158,5x36x36 cm
158.5 х 36 х 36 cm
158.5 х 36 х 36 cm
Technique
Hand-made - cabinet and lathe work
Collection
Exhibition
6
Open in app#1
Boris Arkadievich Pestov
Model of the Vostok launch vehicle, scale 1:25
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It left the ground so smoothly and gently that I did not even notice when it took off. Then I felt a slight vibration. After about 70 seconds there was a gradual change in the vibration. Its frequency fell and its amplitude increased. At that point I could feel a jolting. Then the jolting died down, and when the first stage had finished firing the vibration became like it had been at the beginning. There was a gradual increase in pressure, but it was quite bearable, just like in a normal plane.
— that was how Yuriy Gagarin described his launch into space.
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On October 4 1957 a modified version of the R-7 launched the first ever artificial satellite into orbit around the Earth. It was followed by the launch of other satellites equipped with scientific instruments and carrying animals, dogs, rodents and insects. But for the first manned flight a much more powerful spacecraft was required. And thus a larger and more powerful launch rocket would be required as well.
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Work on the design of rockets for manned space flights began back in 1957. The 8K72 rocket, known as Vostok, was based on the two-stage R-7 rocket, with the addition of a third stage. It had a total mass of 290 tons, and was 38 meters high. This rocket was powerful enough to launch a payload of up to 4.8 tons into orbit.
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Like other rockets in the R-7 family, the Vostok is made up of a number of modules. The four blocks in the first stage are connected in parallel to the second stage, which is the largest one. Above that is the third stage, separated from the second stage by a lattice barrier. The spaceship itself is contained in the highest stage, protected by a fairing shell.
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The launch of a rocket and its payload — a spaceship or satellite — into orbit begins the command “lift off”, upon which the engines in the first and second stages fire simultaneously and the rocket starts to gain height. The fuel in the rocket’s stages is consumed in numerical order: stage one, then stage two, and then stage three. By the time the rocket reaches orbit, it is travelling at 7.9 km/s, known as the First Cosmic Velocity.
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The first trial launches of the new rocket, carrying the prototype Vostok spacecraft, took place in 1960. On August 19, 1960, one of these spacecraft, Sputnik-5, carried the dogs Belka and Strelka, the first living beings to be sent into orbit and return alive.
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And less than a year later, on April 12, 1961, the world’s first cosmonaut, Yuriy Gagarin, made his space flight. Other Soviet cosmonauts, German Titov, Andriyan Nikolayev, Pavel Popovich, Valery Vysotsky and Valentina Tereshkova also made flights in the Vostok spacecraft, which was launched into orbit by the rocket of the same name.
Launch of the Vostok-1 launch vehicle
#15
Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
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Model of the Vostok launch vehicle
Creation period
1988
Place of сreation
Kirov
Dimensions
158,5x36x36 cm
158.5 х 36 х 36 cm
158.5 х 36 х 36 cm
Technique
Hand-made - cabinet and lathe work
Collection
Exhibition
6
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