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Vostok 2

Vostok 2
Mission Insignia
image:vostok2patch.png
Mission Statistics
Mission Name: Vostok 2
Call Sign: Орёл (Oryol - "Eagle")
Number of Crew Members: 1
Launch: August 6, 1961
05:00 UTC
Baikonur LC1
Landing: August 7, 1961
07:18 UTC
51° N, 46° E, near Krasny Kut
Duration: 1 day, 1 hour, 18 minutes
Number of Orbits: 17.5

Vostok 2 was a Soviet space mission which carried cosmonaut Gherman Titov into orbit for a full day in order to study the effects of a more prolonged period of weightlessness on the human body.

Unlike Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1 Titov took manual control of the spacecraft for a short while.

The flight was an almost complete success, marred only by a bout of space sickness, a malfunctioning heater that allowed the inside temperature to drop to 6.1°C (43°F), and a troublesome re-entry when the re-entry module failed to separate cleanly from its service module.

The re-entry capsule was unfortunately destroyed during development of the Voskhod spacecraft.

As of 2003, Titov remains the youngest person to reach space. He was a month short of 26 years old at launch.

Crew

Backup

Mission Parameters

  • Mass: 4730 kg
  • Perigee: 172 km
  • Apogee: 221 km
  • Inclination: 64.8°
  • Period: 88.4 minutes



06-01-2009 23:10:04
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