Vostok 1

High school (ages 12+)
Space & Astronomy

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/vostok-1

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. When was Vostok 1 built?1
2. How high is Vostok 1?169 kilometers (105 miles)
3. What is the launch date?April 12, 1961
4. What is the first human in orbit?Yuri Gagarin
5. What was Vostok 1 and why was it important?Vostok 1 was the first spacecraft to carry a human into orbit around Earth. It showed that people could travel outside our atmosphere and started the age of space travel.
6. Who was the first person to fly in Vostok 1?Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut, was the first person to fly in Vostok 1 and orbit the Earth.

Perigee: The point in an orbit where an object is closest to the body it is orbiting.
Apogee: The point in an orbit where an object is farthest from the body it is orbiting.
Space Race: A 20th-century competition between the United States and the Soviet Union for supremacy in spaceflight capability.
Orbital Mechanics: The study of the motion of objects in space under the influence of gravity.