R-7 Semyorka version
R-7 Semyorka Vostok-K (8K72K)
The refined version of the Vostok-L and the one that actually flew crewed: the rocket that put Yuri Gagarin into orbit. Three stages, 4,725 kg to low Earth orbit and thirteen launches with eleven successes.
- 4,725 kg
- LEO capacity
- No
- Reusable
History
Gagarin's rocket
The 8K72K was a refinement of the Vostok-L and the version used for human spaceflight. With it the Vostok spacecraft carried the first human being into Earth orbit, the moment when the R-7 family turned from a failed missile into the backbone of the Soviet space programme.
Configuration
It keeps the family architecture — four Blok B, V, G and D boosters with RD-107 engines around the Blok A core and its RD-108 — and adds the Blok E third stage. Vostok stack mass is between 280,000 and 290,000 kg and low-orbit capacity is 4,725 kg.
Record
It flew thirteen times with eleven successes and two failures. The captured material does not break out its own first and last launch dates — the family sheet dates only the first Vostok-L flight (15 May 1960) and the last Vostok-2M flight (29 August 1991) — an absence recorded here (RN-15).