Three people enter a cabin originally designed for one cosmonaut. On October 12, 1964, the USSR launched “Voskhod“ - the first manned spacecraft with more than one person on board and the first to fly without spacesuits. The crew consisted of commander Vladimir Komarov, engineer Konstantin Feoktistov and doctor Boris Yegorov.
The ship was developed on the basis of “Vostok“, in which Yuri Gagarin made the first human flight into space. For “Voskhod 1“ the single-seater design was modified to accommodate three people. The ejection seat was removed, and three armchairs were installed in its place. Due to space and mass constraints, the crew did not use spacesuits. This meant that if the cabin were depressurized, the cosmonauts would not be able to survive.
The first multi-person flight
The combination of pilot, engineer, and doctor has both symbolic and practical significance. Feoktistov was the first engineer to reach space, and Yegorov was the first doctor in orbit. During the mission, the crew performed scientific, technical, and biomedical experiments.
„Voskhod 1“ entered an orbit that reached an altitude of approximately 409 kilometers. The ship made 16 orbits around the Earth and remained in space for 24 hours, 17 minutes, and 3 seconds. The landing was made on October 13, 1964, after which the three cosmonauts were declared unharmed.
“Another 24 hours“, the crew requested, but the chief designer replied: “We will stay within the program.“This was reported in Soviet news reports cited in NASA's 1964 historical review of spaceflight. The mission ended as planned, although the crew had expressed a willingness to stay in orbit longer.
Victory in the space race
The flight was part of the race between the USSR and the United States, which were developing multi-person spacecraft. “Voskhod 1“ ahead of the American Gemini program and gave the Soviet Union another lead in the early history of manned spaceflight.
The next mission in the program, Voskhod 2, brought another historic achievement. On March 18, 1965, Alexei Leonov became the first person to step out of a spacecraft into outer space. Thus, Voskhod 1 and Voskhod 2 turned the short Soviet program into a series of two consecutive space demonstrations - first a multi-person flight without spacesuits, and then the first spacewalk.
Sources: history.com, space.com, astronomy.com