The pioneering manned spacecraft was made up of two modules. The single cosmonaut was strapped to an ejection seat in a spherical re-entry capsule. In orbit the capsule was mated with an equipment module, which housed life-support equipment and other spacecraft systems, propellants and a retrorocket for the de-orbit burn. Gagarin, in Vostok 1, remained inside the capsule all the way down to the ground. But the other Vostok cosmonauts ejected prior to landing and descended thereafter by parachute. Touchdown was always on land.
