Kosmos 1

Kosmos 1 (Russian: Космос 1 meaning Cosmos 1), also known as DS-2 No.1 and occasionally in the West as Sputnik 11 was a technology demonstration and ionospheric research satellite launched by the Soviet Union in 1962. It was the first satellite to be designated under the Kosmos system, and the first spacecraft launched as part of the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik programme to successfully reach orbit. Its primary missions were to measure the performance of its carrier rocket, and to conduct research into the ionosphere.^[1]

It was launched on Kosmos-2I 63S1 s/n 6LK.^[2] It was the third flight of the Kosmos-2I, and the first to successfully reach orbit. It was also the first Kosmos rocket of any type to successfully place a satellite into orbit. The launch was conducted from pad 2 of the Mayak Launch Complex at Kapustin Yar, and occurred at 11:59 UTC on 16 March 1962.^[3] Kosmos 1 was placed into a low Earth orbit with a perigee of 207 kilometres (129 mi), an apogee of 649 kilometres (403 mi), 49 degrees of inclination, and an orbital period of 93.1 minutes.^[1] It decayed on 25 May.^[4]

Kosmos 1 was a DS-2 satellite, the first of two to be launched.^[1] The second was launched on 1 December 1964, but did not reach orbit after the payload fairing of the rocket carrying it failed to separate. The DS-2 was a scaled down version of the earlier DS-1 satellite, lacking an avionics system, which was built after the first two DS-1 spacecraft failed to reach orbit.^[5]

See also

• 1962 in spaceflight

References