The world's first operational spacecraft, Vostok could not be flown without a fully qualified crew due to the "Sharik" reentry vehicle design. The spherical capsule had no maneuvering engines; rather it was weighted to one side causing the craft to swing around to the proper orientation. The main concern with Vostok was that it was only capable of a ballistic reentry, which meant 8 Gs for the occupant.

Gherman Titov, back-up to Yuri Gagarin's historic first flight, flew Vostok 2. The mission investigated the effects of prolonged weightlessness on the human body. While it was not essential for the Titov to take manual control, he did but soon suffered from space sickness. He also experienced problems with the separation of the service module after retro-fire. After 17 orbits, Titov was recovered on August 7, 1961 at 7:18 GMT.

The attached cord is a part of the parachute ejection unit recovered from the Vostok 2 spaecraft.