page_title: Vostok 1
section_title: Automatic control
hierarchical_section_title: Vostok 1 / Preparations / Automatic control
caption_attribution_description: English: Part of Vostok-1 spacecraft control panel
context_page_description: Vostok 1 was the first spaceflight of the Vostok programme and the first crewed spaceflight in history. The Vostok 3KA space capsule was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 12, 1961, with Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin aboard, making him the first human to cross into outer space.
  The orbital spaceflight consisted of a single orbit around Earth which skimmed the upper atmosphere at 169 kilometers at its lowest point. The flight took 108 minutes from launch to landing. Gagarin parachuted to the ground separately from his capsule after ejecting at 7 km altitude.
context_section_description: The entire mission would be controlled by either automatic systems or by ground control. This was because medical staff and spacecraft engineers were unsure how a human might react to weightlessness, and therefore it was decided to lock the pilot's manual controls. In an unusual move, a code to unlock the controls was placed in an onboard envelope, for Gagarin's use in case of emergency. Prior to the flight, Kamanin and others told Gagarin the code (1-2-5) anyway.
caption: Part of the Vostok 1 instrument panel prominently displaying the "Globus" navigation instrument
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