The Vostok programme (/ ˈ v ɒ s t ɒ k, v ɒ ˈ s t ɒ k /; Russian: Восток, IPA:, translated as "East") was a Soviet human spaceflight project to put the first Soviet cosmonauts into low Earth orbit and return them safely. Competing with the United States Project Mercury, it succeeded in placing the first human into space, Yuri Gagarin, in a single orbit in Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961. More @Wikipedia
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