The Vostok (Восток, translated as "East") was a type of spacecraft built by the Soviet Union's space program for human spaceflight.
The craft consisted of a spherical descent module (mass 2.46 tonnes, diameter 2.3 meters), which housed the cosmonaut, instruments and escape system, and a conical instrument module (mass 2.27 tonnes, 2.25 m long, 2.43 m wide), which contained propellant and the engine system. On reentry, the cosmonaut would eject from the craft at about 7,000 m (23,000 ft) and descend via parachute, while the capsule would land separately.
The Vostok spacecraft was originally designed for use both as a camera platform (for the Soviet Union's first spy satellite program, Zenit) and as a manned spacecraft. This dual-use design was crucial in gaining Communist Party support for the program. The basic Vostok design has remained in use for some forty years, gradually adapted for a range of other unmanned satellites.
The descent module design was reused, in heavily-modified form, by the Voskhod programme.
There were several models of the Vostok leading up to the manned version:
- Vostok 1K - prototype spacecraft. Used to test basic systems and prove the concept.
- Vostok 2K - photo-reconnaissance and signals intelligence spacecraft . Later named Zenit-2.
- Vostok 3K - Manned spacecraft.
Vostok 3KA spacecraft specifications
Reentry Module: Vostok SA. Also known as: Spuskaemiy apparat - 'Sharik' (sphere).
- Crew Size: 1
- Length: 2.3 m
- Diameter: 2.3 m
- Mass: 2,460 kg
- Heat Shield Mass: 837 kg
- Recovery equipment: 151 kg
- Parachute deploys at 2.5 km altitude
- Crew seat and provisions: 336 kg
- Crew ejects at 7 km altitude
- Ballistic reentry acceleration: 8 g (78 m/s²)
Equipment Module: Vostok PA. Also known as: Priborniy otsek.
- Length: 2.25 m
- Diameter: 2.43 m
- Mass: 2,270 kg
- Equipment in pressurized compartment
- RCS Propellants: Cold gas (nitrogen)
- RCS Propellants: 20 kg
- Main Engine (TDU): 397 kg
- Main Engine Thrust: 15.83 kN
- Main Engine Propellants: Nitrous oxide/amine
- Main Engine Propellants: 275 kg
- Main Engine Isp: 266 kgf·s/kg (2.61 kN·s/kg)
- Main Engine Burn Time: 1 minute (typical retro burn = 42 seconds)
- Spacecraft delta v: 155 m/s
- Electrical System: Batteries
- Electric System: 0.20 average kW
- Electric System: 24.0 kW·h
- Total Mass:4,730 kg
- Endurance: Supplies for 10 days in orbit
- Launch Vehicle: Vostok 8K72K
- Typical orbit: 177 km x 471 km, 64.9 inclinaton
See also
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