Vostok (Rocket Family)

Vostok was a family of Soviet rockets derived from the R-7 Semyorka intercontinental ballistic missile and designed for the human spaceflight programme. It was a subset of the R-7 family, and its rockets launched both the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, and the first crewed spacecraft, Vostok, in human history. The major versions were the Luna 8K72, used for early Luna probes, the Vostok-L 8K72 that launched prototype Vostok spacecraft, the refined Vostok-K 8K72K that actually carried crews, the Vostok-2 8A92 used for Zenit reconnaissance satellites throughout the 1960s, the Vostok-2M 8A92M for Meteor weather satellites into higher orbits, and a hybrid Soyuz/Vostok 11A110 flown twice as an interim. The 8K72K had four strap-on boosters, a core stage and a third stage, all burning liquid oxygen and kerosene. On 18 March 1980 a Vostok-2M exploded on its launch pad at Plesetsk during fueling, killing 48 people; the investigation traced the failure to lead-based solder in hydrogen peroxide filters.