The Vostok mission was a stunning success with its safe return of the dog Zvezdockha (Little Star) and the smooth ejection by parachute of the dummy Ivan Ivanovich.  After orbiting the earth for 115 minutes with his canine companion, Ivan was successfully ejected upon re-entry, and Vostok (with Zvezdockha inside) landed in the city of Izhevsk, near the Ural Mountains. The townspeople who came across the bizarre scene of a smoldering space ship surrounded by soldiers first thought Ivan was a real person. Luckily, Russian space technicians had thought ahead: Concerned that whomever found Ivan might mistake him for a real man or space alien, they wrote the word Model across his forehead.

Vostok 3KA-2 was such a triumph, that Soviet decision-makers were convinced the time had come to launch the first man into space. James Oberg, the internationally recognized space expert and author, stated: "Vostok 3KA-2 was the key in the door for Gagarin’s flight." Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space on April 12, 1961 aboard Vostok 3KA-3, just 18 days after Vostok 3KA-2.

This Vostok capsule was later transferred from Koralev’s OKB-1 Design Studio near Moscow to D. I. Koslov’s Samara Design Bureau, where it became the basis for the first Soviet military photographic reconnaissance (spy) satellite. Vostok later became the prototype of many of the spy satellites used by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.  This historic capsule was then transferred to the Kuybyshev Training Institute in 1967 where it retained its top-secret status until 1986, when its classification was lifted during the era of Glasnost. Remarkably, Vostok derived craft (Voshkod, then Soyuz) are still in use today.

As the twin sister of the first craft to fly man into the cosmos, this capsule is perhaps the most significant space vehicle ever exhibited in the western world.