User:Kevin0214/Voskhod 1

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 used in 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 test model from an altitude of 10,000 meters. During the test, the hatch for the parachute failed to open. This resulted in the Voskhod 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.