Questions tagged [vostok-program]
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Gagarin not ejecting from capsule
I'm currently reading a dutch book about the earlier days of manned spaceflight (Ruimtevaart B. van der Klaauw). Published in 1962
In a chapter about Vostok 1 the book reads as following
Translated ...
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At what moment during his flight did Yuri Gagarin eat?
Gagarin's flight in space was rather short, but he still had time to eat two tubes of meat and one of chocolate. The flight schedule on Wikipedia doesn't mention a meal. At what moment during his ...
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How was the "female" SK-2 different from the "male" SK-1 spacesuit?
The SK-1 was the spacesuit worn on the Vostok 1-5 flights.
The same article describes the SK-2 suit as "[a]lmost exactly the same as the SK-1 but designed for a woman". It was worn by ...
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How is the anniversary of Vostok 1 celebrated in the U.S. space community?
Sixty years ago, the first human spaceflight was celebrated in the Soviet Union as a great technical and historic victory. Americans at the time were concerned that the United States was losing the ...
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How did Gagarin's flight affect improvements to the Vostok capsule?
Every spaceflight is an opportunity to learn what does not work well and to improve the vehicle for the next flight. Did Yuri Gagarin's first human spaceflight yield any changes to the capsules or ...
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Did Yuri Gagarin really telephone officials in Moscow to come pick him up?
A farmer and her daughter observed the strange scene of a figure in a bright orange suit with a large white helmet landing near them by parachute. Gagarin later recalled, "When they saw me in my ...
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How did the pilot lockout on Vostok 1 work?
The entire mission would be controlled by either automatic systems or by ground control. This was because medical staff and spacecraft engineers were unsure how a human might react to weightlessness, ...
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What led Yuri Gagarin to believe his hatch was not properly sealed?
While still on the launchpad for his historic first human spaceflight, Yuri Gagarin radioed that the spacecraft's hatch was not correctly sealed:
Following a series of tests and checks, about forty ...
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Was the SK-1 spacesuit tested in flight prior to Gagarin's historic mission?
April 12 is the 60th anniversary of the first human spaceflight, Vostok 1. As no human had previously been to space, it was also a test of the SK-1 spacesuit that cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin wore.
This ...
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Highest apogee of a Soviet/Russian crewed spacecraft?
I wonder which Soviet/Russian crewed spaceflight reached the highest apogee and how high. For America, the highest apogee ever reached is 1,368 kilometers (~ 850 mi) by Gemini 11 (except that America ...
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Have any Soviet-era astronauts reported seeing Earth's aurora or related luminescent atmospheric effects?
Earth's aurora and related luminescent atmospheric effects are generally quite dim, and mostly but not always located in the general area of Earth's magnetic poles.
That means to be seen easily by eye ...
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Why were there two cosmonauts shown in the movie "Gagarin"?
Today I saw movie "Gagarin" and in the bus scene towards the first flight; there were two cosmonauts.
If Gagarin was chosen to fly first then why was the second guy present? What was his ...
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How do Russians enumerate old Soviet space missions?
How are old Soviet space missions numbered in Russia?
Were the earliest missions actually given a number, or are they referred to by their cosmonaut, or by a spacecraft nickname instead?
Does the ...
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Urine collection for early russian astronauts
Alan Shepard infamously urinated in his spacesuit on the launchpad. His flight was supposed to be short, so nobody thought that he might have to go during the mission. In the following space missions, ...
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What were the reasons the American space-race era rockets didn't use boosters?
Many families of rockets use booster rockets, most notably the R-7 rockets that the Soviet and later Russians use. In comparison the American space-race era rockets mostly didn't.
For example, the ...
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