Series of Soviet manned spacecraft, the first of which, Vostok 1, carried the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin, on 12 April 1961. Gagarin's flight lasted 1 hour 48 minutes, during which time he completed one full orbit of the Earth, reaching a maximum altitude of 327 km. The vostok series consisted of six missions, the last of which, Vostok 6, carried the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova; launched on 16 June 1963, she completed forty-eight orbits.
The Vostok spacecraft had a mass of 4.7 tonnes, and contained a spherical re-entry module with accommodation for one cosmonaut. The name "Vostok" means, literally, "east".
