Page "Intercontinental ballistic missile" Paragraph 11

It was the same R-7 launch vehicle that placed the first artificial satellite in space, Sputnik, on 4 October 1957.

The first human spaceflight in history was accomplished on a derivative of R-7, Vostok, on 12 April 1961, by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

A deeply modernized version of the R-7 is still used as the launch vehicle for the Soviet / Russian Soyuz spacecraft, marking more than 50 years of operational history of the original Sergei Korolyov's rocket design.