To beat the American two-man Gemini program, Sergei Korolev's design bureau adapted a Vostok capsule, removing the ejection seat and fitting three couches. There was no room for spacesuits. The crew, commander Vladimir Komarov, engineer Konstantin Feoktistov and physician Boris Yegorov, orbited for about 24 hours. When they landed on October 13, they learned that Nikita Khrushchev, who had spoken to them by radio, had been removed from power while they were in orbit.
In 1964 Khrushchev wanted another space first before the United States flew its two-seat Gemini spacecraft. Korolev, under pressure, found that the only way to carry three people quickly was to modify the existing Vostok design. The single ejection seat was removed, which meant the crew had no means of escape if the rocket failed in the first minutes of flight. A new braking rocket allowed the capsule to land on solid ground with the crew inside, rather than ejecting.
The crew had to be small; Feoktistov, one of the spacecraft's designers, was the first engineer to fly, and Yegorov the first physician. They wore light woollen suits. The flight launched at 7:30 a.m. Moscow time on October 12 and circled the Earth 16 times. During the flight, Khrushchev spoke to them from his holiday home on the Black Sea.
By the time they landed, he had been ousted by Leonid Brezhnev and other members of the leadership. The crew's reception in Moscow was delayed as the new leaders settled in. A second Voskhod mission in 1965 included the first spacewalk. Komarov died in 1967 on the first flight of the Soyuz spacecraft.
Key people: Vladimir Komarov, Konstantin Feoktistov, Boris Yegorov, Nikita Khrushchev