Vostok 1 was the first manned space mission, launched on April 12, 1961. It carried Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space, making him the first human to travel beyond Earth's atmosphere and the first to orbit the planet aboard a Vostok 3KA spacecraft. The mission lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes, completing one orbit around the Earth.
Vostok 2, launched on August 6, 1961, carried cosmonaut Gherman Titov into orbit for a full day to study the effects of extended weightlessness on the human body. During the mission, Titov completed over 17 orbits around the Earth, becoming the second person to orbit the planet.
Vostok 3, launched on August 11, 1962, carried cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev on a nearly four-day spaceflight to assess how the human body functions in weightlessness and to evaluate the endurance of the Vostok 3KA spacecraft during extended missions.
Vostok 4 was launched a day after Vostok 3, on August 12, 1962, with cosmonaut Pavel Popovich aboard. This marked the first occasion when more than one manned spacecraft were in orbit simultaneously.
Vostok 5, launched on June 14, 1963, was part of a dual mission with Vostok 6. It carried cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky and was initially scheduled to remain in orbit for 8 days. Bykovsky was recalled to Earth after five days due to heightened solar flare activity during that period.
Vostok 6, launched on June 16, 1963, marked the first human spaceflight mission to carry a woman, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. During her mission, Tereshkova gathered data on how the female body reacts to spaceflight. Her photographs of the horizon from space were later utilized to identify aerosol layers in the atmosphere. Vostok 6 was the final flight of the Vostok 3KA spacecraft.
