Vostok

American  

[vos-tok, vo-stok, vuh-stawk] / ˈvɒs tɒk, vɒˈstɒk, vʌˈstɔk /

noun

1. one of a series of Soviet spacecraft, carrying one cosmonaut, used to make the world's first manned spaceflights.

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Vostok British  

/ ˈvɒstɒk /

noun

1. any of six manned Soviet spacecraft made to orbit the earth. Vostok 1, launched in April 1961, carried Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space; Vostok 6 carried Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space

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Etymology

Origin of Vostok

First recorded in 1961, Vostok is from the Russian word Vostók literally, east

Example Sentences

The province encompasses several well-known subglacial features, including the Wilkes and Aurora basins, as well as the basin containing Lake Vostok, the largest known subglacial lake on Earth.

From Science Daily • Jun. 4, 2026

His firm Baring Vostok financed tech companies such as Yandex, Russia’s answer to Google.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 26, 2025

Blue Origin says the last all-female spaceflight was over 60 years ago when Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to travel into space on a solo mission aboard the spacecraft Vostok 6.

From BBC • Apr. 14, 2025

Lake Vostok is roughly 34 million years old, but Bell is among the researchers who have suggested water circulated through the microbe-filled lake roughly every 50,000 years.

From Salon • Apr. 5, 2025

On June 14, the three women watched as Valery Bykovsky was launched into orbit in Vostok 5 at 2:59 PM Moscow time.

From "Women in Space" by Karen Bush Gibson