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Voskhod

Soviet engineers designed the Voskhod ("Dawn") spacecraft to keep the Soviet Union ahead in the space race of the 1960s while they developed their advanced Soyuz spacecraft. They modified the single-seat Vostok spacecraft to produce Voskhod. Voskhod's improvised design made it the riskiest piloted spacecraft ever flown. Despite the dangers they faced, Voskhod cosmonauts successfully accomplished the first multiperson spaceflight and achieved the first space walk ahead of the American Gemini astronauts.

Voskhod closely resembled Vostok. As in Vostok, the capsule carrying the cosmonauts was a 2.3-meter (7.5-foot) sphere with a round entry hatch. A second hatch covered the parachute compartment. Four metal straps and power and control cables joined the capsule to the 2.25-meter-long (7.4 feet) instrument module, which included batteries, oxygen tanks, guidance equipment, and the primary retro-rocket.

Major Voskhod innovations included extra cosmonaut couches and a backup retro-rocket on top of the capsule. Like Vostok, Voskhod reached Earth orbit on a modified R-7 missile. Voskhod weighed 5,300 kilograms (11,684 pounds), about 570 kilograms (1,260 pounds) more than Vostok, and so the Voskhod rocket was more powerful than the Vostok version. The Vostok capsule and hatch were too small to allow multiple ejection seats, and so the Voskhod cosmonauts had no way to escape if the rocket malfunctioned during launch.

An unpiloted Voskhod test flight designated Kosmos 47 (October 6 and 7, 1964) preceded Voskhod 1 (October 12 and 13, 1964). Commander Vladimir Komarov, engineer Konstantin Feoktistov, and medical doctor Boris Yegerov formed Voskhod 1's crew. Voskhod 1 was so cramped that the three cosmonauts could not wear space suits for protection. The twenty-four-hour, seventeen-minute mission produced the first multiperson spaceflight and sent the first doctor and engineer into space.

To permit a Soviet cosmonaut to perform the first space walk, Soviet engineers fitted Voskhod 2 (March 18 and 19, 1965) with an inflatable fabric airlock called Volga. Kosmos 57 (February 22 to March 31, 1965) tested Volga in space. Kosmos 57's Volga inflated and then explosively ruptured. Nevertheless, Soviet leaders refused to delay the launch. The United States planned the first Gemini space walk within months, and so Voskhod 2 could not be delayed to allow more Volga testing.

Voskhod 2's Volga performed normally. Commander Pavel Belyayev deployed the 2.5-meter-long (8.2 feet) airlock, and then Alexei Leonov closed his space helmet and squeezed inside. Belyayev closed the hatch behind him and released Volga's air. Leonov then opened Volga's outer hatch and floated out into space. The Soviets claimed that Leonov's twenty-four-minute space walk went smoothly, but it is now known that he almost died. Struggling to control his movements against the stiff space suit, Leonov overheated and became stuck in Volga while trying to return to Voskhod 2. He freed himself only after releasing air from the suit so that he could bend.

Trouble struck again during Voskhod 2's return to Earth. The automatic re-entry system failed, forcing Belyayev to pilot a manual re-entry. Voskhod 2 landed 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) off target in Siberia and bounced down a hill. A bear menaced the cosmonauts as they waited overnight for rescue. The twenty-six-hour rescue flight ended the perilous Voskhod program.