The craft consisted of a spherical descent module (diameter 2.3 meters), which housed the cosmonauts, and instruments, and a conical instrument module (mass 2.27 tonnes, 2.25 m long, 2.43 m wide), which contained propellant and the engine system.
In order to create more space inside the descent module, the cosmonaut's ejection seat was removed, meaning that the Voskhod crews would return to Earth inside their spacecraft, unlike the Vostok cosmonauts who ejected and parachuted down separately. The lack of space also meant that the Voskhod crews did not wear space suits, although one was taken on the Voshkod 2 mission. The overall increase in mass required a new landing system to slow the craft, and this added a small solid-fuel rocket to the parachutes. Finally, the Voskhod 2 spacecraft carried a large inflatable airlock that allowed cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov to exit and re-enter the craft.
It was carried into orbit by the Voskhod rocket, also developed from the earlier Vostok rocket and ultimately derived from the R-7 ICBM.