Observation and photographing of the Earth's surface during the flight of the Voskhod three-seater manned spacecraft on October 12–13, 1964

Today, orbital-based optical means of observing the Earth's surface is an important element of space technical devices. They went through almost 60-years-long history of development. The history of remote sensing is inextricably linked with the evolution of on-board photographic equipment of manned spacecraft. Observation and photographing of the Earth's surface were part of the flight program of the first Soviet spacecraft of the Vostok series. These studies were continued during the flight of the Voskhod-1 manned spacecraft (October 12–13, 1964). The 24-hours flight of a three-seater spacecraft was an important stage for the formation of approaches to the research program onboard manned spacecraft. The task of this scientific and historical research was to determine the mission contribution to the development of means and methods of remote sensing of the Earth's surface. The article describes the main technical means for fulfilling the tasks of surveying and photographing the Earth's surface during the flight of the Voskhod spacecraft, the methods of their use in flight; an assessment of the achievement of the objectives of the flight program; the main results and conclusions based on the analysis of space photographs are presented. On the basis of historical material, a conclusion was drawn on the novelty of the information obtained in the conditions of the formation of Soviet cosmonautics and on the significance of the flight results of the Voskhod spacecraft in the development of onboard facility and methods for remote sensing of the Earth from space.