Voskhod 3KV Series

By Marcia S. Smith*

1971-1975

On October 6, 1964, Kosmos 47 was put into an orbit 177 x 413 km and after just one day was retro fired to come back to Earth while its carrier rocket flew for eight days. Just six days later 'a manned flight (Voskhod 1) came with elements of 178 x 409 km and also stayed up one day.

On February 22, 1965 , Kosmos 57 was put into an orbit 175 x 512 km. This time something went wrong, for the payload was exploded in orbit. Voskhod 2 did not follow as closely after this precursor as had happened the previous fall. One can surmise that it required a little time to determine that whatever went wrong with Kosmos 57 would be unlikely to occur in the manned flight to follow. Hence the follow-up flight was delayed 24 days and then entered a 173 x 495 km orbit.

1. Voskhod 1

Voskhod 1 was launched on October 12, 1964 , and based upon information released after the fact, we can determine that it was put up by an A-2 launch vehicle, which permitted increasing the payload weight from the 4,700 kg range to 5,320 kg. The payload itself has been shown only while covered with its launch shroud, but this was so similar to that of the Vostok series that Voskhod seems to be only a modified Vostok.

The principal modification of this first flight was removal of the heavy ejection seat on its rails. Then within the 'approximately 2.5 meter sphere of the cabin, it was possible to place three seats side-by-side, but with the center seat raised. By this time such confidence had been gained in the reliability of the basic system, that the cosmonauts did not wear cumbersome protective space suits and helmets, but comfortable coveralls. This practice was followed until the Soyuz 11 tragedy, when the three-man crew died due to a pressure leak in their cabin. Without ejection seats, the landing of the ship with crew on board was eased by use of a final braking rocket.

Voskhod 1 was the first multi-manned flight. The crew was led by Colonel Vladimir Komarov, accompanied by a military physiologist, Lieutenant Boris Yegorov, and a civilian technical scientist. Konstantin Feoktistov. Although the flight lasted only one day, the special crew made it possible to obtain much more comprehensive medical data as well as operate more complex checks on the payload systems and external experiments. The flight also returned live television pictures from orbit.

There is 'an interesting political sidelight to this mission, for while in orbit Premier Khrushchev sent congratulations to the crew and promised to see them on the reviewing stands in Moscow on their return. They landed less than 24 hours later, but when they reached Moscow , Mr. Khrushchev had been replaced by Party Secretary Brezhnev and Premier Kosygin.

Voskhod-III

The anticipated Voskhod-3 long duration mission demonstration planned.

References:

(A) SOVIET SPACE PROGRAMS, 1971-75, OVERVIEW, FACILITIES AND HARDWARE MANNED AND UNMANNED FLIGHT PROGRAMS, BIOASTRONAUTICS CIVIL AND MILITARY APPLICATIONS PROJECTIONS OF FUTURE PLANS, STAFF REPORT , THE COMMITTEE ON AERONAUTICAL AND SPACE .SCIENCES, UNITED STATES SENATE, BY THE SCIENCE POLICY RESEARCH DIVISION CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE, THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, VOLUME – I, AUGUST 30, 1976, GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1976,

•Ms. Smith Is an analyst in science and technology. Science Policy Research Division, Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress.