The Voskhod rocket (russian: Восход, ''"ascent"'', ''"dawn"'') was a derivative of the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

R-7

ICBM An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more thermonuclear warheads). Conventional, chemical, and biological weapons c ...

designed for the

human spaceflight Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight) is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be ...

programme but later used for launching

Zenit Zenit, meaning "zenith", may refer to: Spaceflight and rocketry * Zenit (rocket family), a Soviet family of space launch vehicles * Zenit (satellite), a type of Soviet spy satellite * Zenit sounding rocket, a Swiss rocket Sports * Zenit (sports ...

reconnaissance satellite A reconnaissance satellite or intelligence satellite (commonly, although unofficially, referred to as a spy satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications. The ...

s. It consisted of the Molniya 8K78M third stage minus the Blok L. In 1966, all R-7 variants were equipped with the uprated core stage and strap-ons of the Soyuz 11A511. The Blok I stage in the Voskhod booster used the RD-0107 engine rather than the crew rated and more powerful

RD-0110 The RD-0110 (or RO-8 , RD-0108 , RD-461 ) is a rocket engine burning liquid oxygen and kerosene in a gas generator combustion cycle. It has four fixed nozzles and the output of the gas generator is directed to four secondary vernier nozzles to s ...

used on the Soyuz. The sole exception to this were the two manned Voskhod launches, which had RD-0108 engines, a crew-rated RD-0107 but with the same performance. All 11A57s launched after 1965 were functionally a 11A511 without the Soyuz's payload shroud and

launch escape system A launch escape system (LES) or launch abort system (LAS) is a crew-safety system connected to a space capsule that can be used to quickly separate the capsule from its launch vehicle in case of an emergency requiring the abort of the launch, suc ...

(with the exception of the second stage propulsion system as noted above). Around 300 were flown from Baikonur and Plesetsk through 1976 (various payloads, but Zenith

IMINT Imagery intelligence (IMINT), pronounced as either as ''Im-Int'' or ''I-Mint'', is an intelligence gathering discipline wherein imagery is analyzed (or "exploited") to identify information of intelligence value. Imagery used for defense intelli ...

satellites were the most common). The newer 11A511U core had been introduced in 1973, but the existing stock of 11A57s took another three years to use up. The rocket had a streak of 86 consecutive successful launches between 11 September 1967 and 9 July 1970.

References

{{R-7 rockets 1963 in spaceflight 1964 in spaceflight 1965 in spaceflight 1973 in spaceflight 1974 in spaceflight Voskhod program Space launch vehicles of the Soviet Union R-7 (rocket family) Vehicles introduced in 1963

See also

References