June 1982:letters

Voskhod and Soyuz

Sir, Since the publication of James Oberg’s excellent article "Soyuz 1 Ten Years After: New Conclusions” (Spaceflight, May 1977, pp. 183-189) there have been numerous letters of correspondence. Amid all the discussions of the mission, one point seems to have been missed. The concept of two Soviet manned spacecraft docking and the crew making an EVA transfer had been around for at least five years before Vladimir Komarov made his fatal and still controversial mission. The earliest reference I have seen is the 24 August 1962 Life Magazine (after the Vostok 3 and 4 flights). It shows an artist’s concept of two bullet shaped Vostoks docked tail to tail. The ejection seats and hatch covers have been extended and a cosmonaut is transferring. The text said that this manoeuvre was believed to be the next step in the Soviet space programme.

Rendezvous and transfer would next appear after the flight of Voskhod 2. Aviation Week & Space Technology alleged that the Voskhod 3 countdown was halted shortly before launch, some 18 to 19 hours after the Voskhod 2 launch. A rendezvous and transfer was expected by US observers and was rumoured in Moscow. As NASA was preparing the Gemini 6 mission the rumours again appeared, Aviation Week carried an article predicting that a multi-manned, 15 day mission would be the next Soviet flight. Three mission profiles were mentioned. A dual launching of manned Voskhod spacecraft with rendezvous and docking was the primary goal, with a long duration flight as the secondary one. The second profile was the launching of a manned and an unmanned Voskhod. They would rendezvous and one or more cosmonauts transfer to the unmanned spacecraft. The third was a manned circumlunar flight. The article continued that Soviet scientists considered the transfer of cosmonauts from one spacecraft to another to be a key step toward the construction of a space station. A few months later, in early 1966, the Czech technical journal Veda a Technika Mladezi said that in 1967 two manned Voskhods would be launched for_a two week mission that would include rendezvous and docking. (This, however, could have used the Aviation Week article as a source rather than being independent confirmation.) After this, such reports were tied to the Soyuz 1 flight.