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It became clear within the Soviet Union in 1964 that development of the Soyuz spacecraft was delayed. Known American plans for their new Gemini spacecraft indicated that this would allow the United States to set new space records for the first time in the space race. To prevent this from happening, the Voskhod spacecraft series was conceived, exceeding the limitations of the basic Vostok 3KA 3 design at the sacrifice of crew safety. A third variant of the Vostok spacecraft was to have an improved environmental control system for extended missions. Unlike Gemini and Soyuz, Vostok could not maneuver in orbit, and therefore could not conduct rendezvous or docking operations, but withe an improved environmental control system it might be possible to fly missions longer than the 14-day Gemini specification. Voskhod 1 and 2 achieved the first two objectives of the extended Vostok program, snatching from Gemini the glory of of the first multi-man spacecraft and the first spacewalk, respectively. Voskhod 3 was to accomplish the third. In October 1964 it was planned that the Voskhods 3 and 4 would fly in the second quarter of 1965, allowing single cosmonauts to set new space endurance records of first twelve, and then fifteen days. This would upstage the American plans to fly Geminis 5 and 7 on seven and fourteen day missions in the second half of 1965. But development of a new environmental control system allowing Voskhod missions of at least 15 days proved difficult. As the schedule slipped and it became clear that the long-duration Vostok missions could not be flown ahead of either of the long-duration Gemini missions, the requirement was increased to 20 days so as not to one-up Gemini slightly, but to beat the American program soundly. Because of the new requirement, the schedule inevitably slipped even more. Chief Designer Sergej Korolyov was overworked and becoming ill, being simultaneously tasked with the Luna series of automated lunar spacecraft, getting the Soyuz spacecraft operational, and starting work on the massive N1-L3 manned lunar landing project, so he quietly gave low priority to squeezing the last ounce of performance out of the obsolescent Vostok spacecraft. The unexpected death of Korolyov in January 1966 during what was seen as a routine surgical procedure left the Soviet space program in disarray. Although the unmanned precursor mission for Voskhod 3 flew under the designation Kosmos 110, the future of the long-duration manned missions became even more uncertain. First Voskhod 4 was canceled, then work on Voskhod was abandoned, although it was never officially canceled. References:
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