Voskhod 1

Cosmonauts

Back-up crew

Reserve Cosmonaut

Mission parameters

• Mass: 5320 kg
• Perigee: 178 km
• Apogee: 336 km
• Inclination: 64.7°
• Period: 89.6 min

Background

The original prime crew of cosmonauts for Voskhod 1, composed of Boris Volynov, Georgi Katys, and Boris Yegorov, was rejected just three days before the scheduled launch date for the space capsule. Katys was reportedly removed after the KGB discovered that his father had been shot during the Great Purge in 1937 and Volynov apparently was the victim of discrimination due to his part-Jewish background, although he would later fly on Soyuz 5 and Soyuz 21.

Politics played a role in the crew's selection. Various factions each supported their own representatives for the flight. Sergei Korolev wanted his engineers to become cosmonauts, believing that spacecraft designers should fly in their own vehicles. The Soviet Air Force agreed to a crew composed of a military pilot, an engineer or scientist, and a doctor, but advocated for an all-military crew. Konstantin Feoktistov, who had been a design engineer for the Vostok, Voskhod, and Soyuz programs, was selected for this flight, becoming the only Soviet outer space designer to make a spaceflight. Yegorov, a medical doctor, used his political influence to get selected for the crew through his father's Politburo connections. The Soviet space program viewed its crews as passengers more than pilots; the new cosmonauts received only three to four months of training, perhaps the briefest in space history other than that received by the American politicians Jake Garn and Bill Nelson for Space Shuttle flights in the 1980s.

Mission highlights

Liftoff took place at 7:30 on the morning of 12 October. Much of the mission of Voskhod 1 was devoted to biomedical research, and to the study of how a multidisciplinary team could work together in space. The mission was short, at only slightly over 24 hours. Incidentally, the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev was removed from power during the spaceflight, and it has been speculated that this led to the mission's being cut short. The cramped conditions of the Voskhod space capsule has also been suggested as a factor ruling out a longer-duration spaceflight.

During the flight, Khrushchev spoke with the cosmonauts via radio phone from his dacha in the Crimea. Shortly after this conversation, he was summoned back to Moscow where he learned that he was being expelled from office and the Communist Party. When the crew returned to Earth the next day, they were greeted by Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin in their first public appearance as leaders of the Soviet Union.

Despite the propaganda boasting around Voskhod 1, it was privately referred to by the leadership of the Soviet space program as "a circus" due to the messy process of crew selection, the cosmonauts needing to diet to fit inside their spacecraft, Khrushchev's expulsion during the flight, and also the extremely dangerous circumstances of it (the crew having neither pressure suits nor any way to escape from a malfunctioning launch vehicle).

Happening as it did before the beginning of the Project Gemini two-man flights, Voskhod 1 had a significant, but temporary, international impact. The NASA Administrator, James E. Webb, called the flight of Voskhod 1 a "significant space accomplishment" adding that it was "a clear indication that the Russians are continuing a large space program for the achievement of national power and prestige."

Development

The Voskhod 1 mission was the first three-man mission attempted by the USSR. The development for this mission was formally approved on 13 April 1964. This mission used a modified Vostok spacecraft that had been designed for previous manned missions. The modified Vostok spacecraft was renamed Voskhod 1 for the new three-man missions. The Voskhod 1 required many modifications since three cosmonauts had to fit in the capsule that had previously been designed for only one person. Some modifications also had to be made to the 11A57 launch vehicle which was used to launch the Voskhod 1. The first major modification was replacing the one ejection seat with three couches since there were now three cosmonauts. These couches included a suspension system to absorb the shock from launch and landing. Because of space and weight requirements these new seats could not be ejection seats. This resulted in a new parachute mechanism being needed to soft land the entire crew capsule. In addition, the limited space did not allow the cosmonauts to wear pressurized spacesuits and they were only able to wear training suits. This was not a major issue since the crew capsule was pressurized. However, it was less safe because the crew would not survive if the capsule depressurized while in space. In previous missions if the primary retrograde rocket failed the capsule would remain in orbit for 10 days before returning to earth. However, with a crew of three they would not be able to survive for that long. Because of this a backup retrograde rocket was added to deorbit the spacecraft in the event that the primary retrograde rocket failed. In addition to these modifications to Voskhod 1, the third stage of the 11A57 launch vehicle was also changed from the Block Ye to the more powerful Block I. This was done because all the modifications added nearly 600 kilograms of weight to Voskhod 1.

During the development of Voskhod 1 a test of the parachute system was conducted on 6 September 1964. The test was conducted by dropping a Voskhod capsule from an altitude of 10,000 meters. During the test, the hatch for the parachute failed to open. This resulted in the Voskhod capsule crashing without the parachute being deployed. After further testing of the parachute system, it was determined that the electrical circuit that controlled the parachute hatch was the cause of the failure. Because of this, the circuit was redesigned with redundancies of the main components. This resulted in a more reliable circuit. A second test of the Voskhod capsule took place on 5 October 1964. This test resulted in a successful soft landing under a parachute. An unmanned test flight was also conducted on 6 October 1964. For this test, a Voskhod spacecraft was renamed the Kosmos-47 and was put into orbit for one day. Kosmos-47 made a successful soft landing under the parachute. This was the last major test before the actual Voskhod 1 crewed mission. This development concluded with the successful Voskhod 1 mission which launched on 12 October 1964.

Notes

References

References

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