Kosmos 96

Last updated

Kosmos 96
Mission typeVenus flyby [1]
Operator OKB-1
COSPAR ID 1965-094A OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
SATCAT no. 01742
Mission duration16 days
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type 3MV-4
Manufacturer OKB-1
Launch mass6510 kg [2]
Dry mass960 kg
Start of mission
Launch date23 November 1965
03:22:00 GMT
Rocket Molniya 8K78 s/n U15000-30 [3]
Launch site Baikonur, Site 31/6
Contractor OKB-1
End of mission
DisposalLaunch failure
Decay date9 December 1965
Orbital parameters
Reference system Geocentric [4]
Regime Low Earth
Perigee altitude 227 km
Apogee altitude 310 km
Inclination 51.9°
Period 89.8 minutes
Epoch 23 November 1965
←  Venera 3
Venera 4  →
 

Kosmos 96 (Russian : Космос 96 meaning Cosmos 96), or 3MV-4 No.6, was a Soviet spacecraft intended to explore Venus. A 3MV-4 spacecraft launched as part of the Venera programme, Kosmos 96 was to have made a flyby of Venus, however, due to a launch failure, it did not depart low Earth orbit. Its re-entry into Earth's atmosphere is often speculated as the cause of the Kecksburg UFO incident.

Contents

Mission

This was the third and last spacecraft prepared for a Venus encounter. The 3MV-4 No.6 spacecraft was originally built for a mission to Mars, with launch scheduled for late 1964. After it was not launched by the end of its launch window, the spacecraft was repurposed, along with two other spacecraft which were launched as Venera 2 and Venera 3, to explore Venus. [5]

Instruments

The eight scientific instruments were:

Launch

A Molniya 8K78 s/n U15000-30 carrier rocket was used to launch 3MV-4 No.6. The launch occurred from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 03:22 GMT on 23 November 1965. [6] Late in third stage flight, a fuel line ruptured, causing one of the engine's combustion chambers to explode. The rocket tumbled out of control, and as a result the fourth stage, a Blok-L, failed to ignite. The spacecraft was deployed into a low Earth orbit with a perigee of 227 kilometres (141 mi), an apogee of 310 kilometres (190 mi), an 51.9° of inclination, and an orbital period of 89.8 minutes. The spacecraft was named Kosmos 96, part of a series typically used for military and experimental satellites in order to cover up the failure. Had it departed Earth's orbit, it would have received the next designation in the Venera series, at the time Venera 4. Kosmos 96 was destroyed when it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on 9 December 1965. [7]

The Great Lakes fireball and Kecksburg incident

There is some speculation that the re-entry of the Kosmos 96 (Venera-type spacecraft) was responsible for a fireball that was seen over southwestern Ontario, Canada, and at least eight US states from Michigan to New York at 21:43 GMT on 9 December 1965. Investigations of photographs and sightings of the fireball indicated its path through the atmosphere was probably too steep to be consistent with a spacecraft re-entering from Earth orbit and was more likely a meteor in a prograde orbit from the vicinity of the asteroid belt, and probably ended its flight over western Lake Erie. U.S. Air Force tracking data on Kosmos 96 also indicate the spacecraft orbit decayed earlier than 21:43 GMT on 9 December 1965. Other unconfirmed reports state the fireball subsequently landed in Pennsylvania southeast of Pittsburgh near the town of Kecksburg (40.2 N, 79.5 W) at 21:46 EST (although estimating the impact point of fireballs from eyewitness accounts is notoriously inaccurate). Uncertainties in the orbital information and re-entry coordinates and time make it difficult to determine definitively if the fireball could have been the Kosmos 96 spacecraft. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Venera 2MV-1 No.1</span> Soviet spacecraft launched 1962

Venera 2MV-1 No.1, also known as Sputnik 19 in the West, was a Soviet spacecraft, which was launched in 1962 as part of the Venera programme.

Venera 2MV-1 No.2, also known as Sputnik 20 in the Western world, was a Soviet spacecraft, which was launched in 1962 as part of the Venera programme. Due to a problem with its upper stage it failed to leave low Earth orbit, and reentered the atmosphere a few days later. It was the second of two Venera 2MV-1 spacecraft, both of which failed to leave Earth orbit. The previous mission, Venera 2MV-1 No.1, was launched several days earlier.

Kosmos 21 was a Soviet spacecraft. This mission has been tentatively identified by NASA as a technology test of the Venera series space probes. It may have been an attempted Venus impact, presumably similar to the later Kosmos 27 mission, or it may have been intended from the beginning to remain in geocentric orbit. In any case, the spacecraft never left Earth orbit after insertion by the Molniya launcher. The orbit decayed on 14 November 1963, three days after launch.

Kosmos 27, also known as Zond 3MV-1 No.3 was a space mission intended as a Venus impact probe. The spacecraft was launched by a Molniya 8K78 carrier rocket from Baikonur. The Blok L stage and probe reached Earth orbit successfully, but the attitude control system failed to operate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Venera 2</span>

Venera 2, also known as 3MV-4 No.4 was a Soviet spacecraft intended to explore Venus. A 3MV-4 spacecraft launched as part of the Venera programme, it failed to return data after flying past Venus.

Venera 2MV-2 No.1, also known as Sputnik 21 in the West, was a Soviet spacecraft, which was launched in 1962 as part of the Venera programme, and was intended to make a flyby of Venus. Due to a problem with the rocket which launched it, it failed to leave low Earth orbit, and reentered the atmosphere a few days later. It was the second Venera 2MV-2 spacecraft, both of which failed to leave Earth orbit.

Kosmos 173, also known as DS-P1-Yu No.8 was a Soviet satellite which was used as a radar calibration target for tests of anti-ballistic missiles. It was a 325 kilograms (717 lb) spacecraft, was built by the Yuzhnoye, and launched in 1967 as part of the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik programme.

Kosmos 108, also known as DS-U1-G No.1, was a Soviet satellite which was launched in 1966 as part of the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik programme. It was a 355 kilograms (783 lb) spacecraft, which was built by the Yuzhnoye Design Office and was used to study the effects of solar activity on the upper atmosphere.

Kosmos 196, also known as DS-U1-G No.2, was a Soviet satellite which was launched in 1967 as part of the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik programme. It was a 352 kilograms (776 lb) spacecraft, which was built by the Yuzhnoye Design Office, and was used to study the effects of solar activity on the upper atmosphere.

Kosmos 93, also known as DS-U2-V No.1, was a Soviet satellite which was launched in 1965 as part of the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik programme. It was a 305 kilograms (672 lb) spacecraft, which was built by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, and was used to conduct classified technology development experiments for the Soviet armed forces.

Kosmos 95, also known as DS-U2-V No.2, was a Soviet satellite which was launched in 1965 as part of the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik programme. The spacecraft weighed 325 kilograms (717 lb), and was built by the Yuzhnoye Design Office, and was used to conduct classified technology development experiments for the Soviet armed forces.

Kosmos 197, also known as DS-U2-V No.3, was a Soviet satellite which was launched in 1967 as part of the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik programme. It was a 325 kilograms (717 lb) spacecraft, which was built by the Yuzhnoye Design Office, and was used to conduct classified technology development experiments for the Soviet armed forces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kosmos 97</span>

Kosmos 97, also known as DS-U2-M No.1, was a Soviet satellite which was launched in 1965 as part of the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik programme. It was a 267 kilograms (589 lb) spacecraft, which was built by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, and used to conduct tests involving atomic clocks.

Kosmos 119, also known as DS-U2-I No.1, was a Soviet satellite which was launched in 1966 as part of the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik programme. It was a 250 kilograms (550 lb) spacecraft, which was built by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, and was used to study the effects on radio waves of passing through the ionosphere.

Kosmos 163, also known as DS-U2-MP No.2, was a Soviet satellite which was launched in 1967 as part of the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik programme. It was a 357 kilograms (787 lb) spacecraft, which was built by the Yuzhnoye Design Office, and was used to investigate micrometeoroids and cosmic dust particles in near-Earth space.

Kosmos 137, also known as DS-U2-D No.1, was a Soviet satellite which was launched in 1966 as part of the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik programme. It was a 295 kilograms (650 lb) spacecraft, which was built by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, and was used to investigate charged particles in the Earth's magnetosphere.

Kosmos 166, also known as DS-U3-S No.1, was a satellite which was launched by the Soviet Union in 1967 as part of the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik programme. It was a 400 kilograms (880 lb) spacecraft, which was built by the Yuzhnoye Design Office, and was used to conduct multispectral imaging of the Sun.

Kosmos 167, or 4V-1 No.311, was a 1967 Soviet spacecraft intended to explore Venus. A spacecraft launched as part of the Venera programme, Kosmos 167 was intended to land on Venus but never departed low Earth orbit due to a launch failure.

Kosmos 68 or Zenit-2 No.29 was a Soviet, first generation, low resolution, optical film-return reconnaissance satellite launched in 1965. A Zenit-2 spacecraft, Kosmos 68 was the twenty-eighth of eighty-one such satellites to be launched and had a mass of 4,730 kilograms (10,430 lb).

Kosmos 359 was an unmanned Soviet probe launched on 22 August 1970. The probe's intended purpose was to explore Venus, but an error caused the final-stage rocket to malfunction. This left the craft trapped in an elliptical orbit around Earth for 410 days before orbital decay and atmospheric entry. Kosmos 359 was launched five days after Venera 7 and had an identical design; had the craft not suffered a mission-ending failure, it would have landed on Venus shortly after Venera 7. To publicly acknowledge the failure of the attempted Venus lander would be a public relations disaster for the Soviet space program; after the mission failed, the Venera spacecraft was renamed Kosmos 359 in order to conceal the mishap from the public.

References

  1. ↑ Krebs, Gunter. "Interplanetary Probes". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  2. ↑ NASA.gov - 27 February 2020
  3. ↑ NASA.gov pp. 71-72, 2018
  4. ↑ NASA.gov - 27 February 2020
  5. ↑ Siddiqi, Asif A. (2018). BEYOND EARTH: A CHRONICLE OF DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION, 1958–2016 (PDF). NASA History Office. pp. 71–72.
  6. ↑ McDowell, Jonathan. "Launch Log". Jonathan's Space Page. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  7. ↑ McDowell, Jonathan. "Satellite Catalog". Jonathan's Space Page. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  8. ↑ "Cosmos 96". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. NSSDCA/COSPAR ID: 1965-094A. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.