Voskhod was a short transitional program created by adapting the one-person Vostok capsule. Voskhod 1 carried Vladimir Komarov, Konstantin Feoktistov, and Boris Yegorov in October 1964—the first three-person space crew.

Voskhod 2 launched Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov in March 1965. Leonov exited through an inflatable airlock and completed the first human spacewalk, then struggled with a ballooned pressure suit before reentering the spacecraft.

The two missions achieved headline firsts but accepted substantial risk and offered little room for further growth. Soyuz replaced Voskhod as the Soviet Union's durable crewed spacecraft family.