The Soviet/Russian Manned Space Program
 Comprehend the history and
accomplishments of the
Russian Vostok project
 Comprehend the history and
accomplishments of the
Russian Voskhod project
 Comprehend the history and
accomplishments of the
Russian Soyuz Project
Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the First Man in
Space
 Soviets put a man in space first
 On 12 April 1961, Vostok 1, circled the Earth
at nearly 17,000 mph
 Gagarin had no control over his spacecraft
 While training for his second space
mission, his MiG 15 crashed near Moscow
in 1968 killing Gagarin
Valentina Tereshkova, the First Woman
in Space
 An amateur parachutist
 The first woman in space when she went up
aboard Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963
 Her mission lasted nearly three days, in which
she orbited Earth 48 times
Russian Vostok Program – “The Firsts”
 In 1961 Gherman Titov
became the first person to
spend a full day in orbit,
aboard Vostok 2
 In 1962 Vostok 3 and Vostok 4
carried out the first twospacecraft mission
 On 14 June 1963 the crew of
Vostok 5 carried out the first
long-duration mission, five
days in orbit
The Voskhod -- The First Three-Man Spacecraft
 Designers wanted vehicles capable of
carrying more than one person
 Soviets modified their Vostok spacecraft
to hold two or three cosmonauts
 The Voskhod 1 mission was designed to:
 Test the new spacecraft
 See how well a group of cosmonauts
from different professional
backgrounds would work together in
space;
 Conduct physical and technical
experiments;
 Perform an extensive medicalbiological investigation program
Alexei Leonov, the First to ‘Walk’ in Space
 On 18 March 1965 the Soviets
launched the spacecraft Voskhod 2
 Leonov’s spacecraft had an
extendable air lock, however this
did cause some problems getting
back into the spacecraft
 During his brief adventure Leonov
felt both tension and euphoria
 The automatic orientation system
for the retrofire malfunctioned
Russian Soyuz Project
 The Purpose of the Soyuz missions
was to develop a space station that
would orbit Earth
 Although speculation was that the
Soyuz program’s real goal, like that of
Apollo, was to put a man on the Moon
 First Soyuz mission (launched March
1967) ended in disaster
The Docking Experiments Conducted During
Soyuz Project
 On 14 January 1969 the Soviet Union made
its first wintertime launch of a manned
spacecraft: Soyuz 4
 The next day, Soyuz 5 went up
 A day after that, Soyuz 4 began a docking
exercise with Soyuz 5
 Soyuz 4 returned to Earth after three days
with a crew of three
The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
 The first human spaceflight mission
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managed jointly by two nations
On 15 July 1975 the space agencies
launched their two ships.
At 2:17 p.m. US Central Time on 17
July the two ships docked
The mission was a resounding
success for both countries
Summer 1976, then 10 year old,
intrepid space enthusiast Todd
Zachary builds his Apollo-Soyuz
model…two days later it is destroyed
in a freak pyrotechnics experiment
Mir Space Station (1986-2001)
 The Russian Space Station Mir endured
15 years in orbit, three times its planned
lifetime
 Mir set every record in long-duration
spaceflight. Physician Valeri Polyakov
lived aboard Mir for a single,
continuous-orbit stay of 437 days, 17
hours and 38 minutes.
 On June 29, 1995, U.S. Space Shuttles
began docking with the Russian space
station
 After more than 86,000 total orbits,
Mir re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on
Friday, March 23, 2001, at 9 a.m.
Moscow time.
Russian Space Program Today
 International Space Station
 Heavy Space Lift Capability
 Phobus Grunt Mission (Jan 2012)
 Designed to collect samples from
the Martian moon Phobos
 Soon after launch a series of
malfunctions occur in the
propulsion system preventing the
spacecraft from leaving earth’s orbit
The Soviet/Russian Manned Space Program
 Comprehend the history and
accomplishments of the
Russian Vostok project
 Comprehend the history and
accomplishments of the
Russian Voskhod project
 Comprehend the history and
accomplishments of the
Russian Soyuz Project