Voskhod (spacecraft)

The Voskhod spacecraft was, essentially, a Vostok spacecraft that had a backup solid fuel retrorocket added to the top of the descent module. The ejection seat was removed for more space and two or three crew couches were added to the interior at a 90° angle to that of the Vostok crew position. There was no provision for crew escape in the event of a launch or landing emergency.

Lack of space meant that the three crew members of Voskhod 1 did not wear space suits.[1] Both crew members wore spacesuits on the Voskhod 2 mission, as it involved an EVA and used an inflatable airlock. This allowed cosmonaut Alexei Leonov to exit and re-enter the craft. It was needed because the vehicle's electrical and environmental systems were air-cooled, and complete capsule depressurization would lead to overheating. The airlock weighed 250 kg (550 lb), was 70 cm (28 in) in diameter, 77 cm (30 in) high when collapsed for launch. When extended in orbit, it was 2.5 m (8.2 ft) long, had an internal diameter of 1 m (3 ft 3 in) and an external diameter of 1.2 m (3.9 ft). The second crew member wore a spacesuit as a precaution against accidental descent module depressurization. The airlock was jettisoned after use.

The lack of ejection seats meant that the Voskhod crew would return to Earth inside their spacecraft, unlike the Vostok cosmonauts who ejected and parachuted down separately. Because of this, a new landing system was developed, which added a small solid-fuel rocket to the parachute lines. It fired as the descent module neared touchdown, providing a softer landing.

A backup solid-fueled retrorocket was added to the top of the descent module in the event that the main retrorocket failed. This had not been necessary on Vostok as the orbit was low enough that the spacecraft's orbit would decay in ten days if the retrorocket failed, there being enough onboard consumables to sustain the cosmonaut that long. In any case, the Blok E equipped R-7 booster lacked sufficient lift capacity for a backup retrorocket. Since Voskhod was well below the maximum lift capacity of the larger Blok I equipped R-7, it would be put into a quite high orbit and not decay in ten days.

Voskhod utilized the 11A57 booster, essentially the Molniya 8K78L with the Blok L stage removed to create a medium-lift LEO launcher, and later the launch vehicle for the Soyuz program.

The spacecraft notably lacked any launch escape system, meaning that the crew would not survive a booster failure that occurred in the first 2.5 minutes of launch (after payload shroud jettison, the descent module could simply be detached). Although work had begun on an LES in 1962, it was not ready yet and so the engineers and cosmonauts simply had to gamble that the booster functioned properly during ascent, as by 1964, the R-7's success rate was improving but still not perfect.

Also known as Voskhod. Adaptation of the Vostok spacecraft for three cosmonauts. This version flew twice, on 6 October 1964 uncrewed (as Kosmos 47) and on 12 October 1964 crewed as Voskhod 1.

This version flew twice, on 22 February 1965 uncrewed (as Kosmos 57) and on 18 March 1965 crewed as the Voskhod 2 spacecraft.

• Total Mass: 5682 kg
• Total Length: 5.0 m
• Endurance: Supplies for 14 days in orbit
• Launch Vehicle: Voskhod 11A57
• Typical orbit: 163 km x 591 km, 64.8° inclination

• Voskhod 2
• Voskhod rocket
• Voskhod programme
• Spacecraft
• Voskhod Spacecraft Globus IMP navigation instrument

• Siddiqi, Asif A. (2000). Challenge To Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945–1974 (PDF). US: NASA. ISBN 1780393016.

• Voskhod spacecraft on Zarya