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...