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Article Number: 17F114. Class: Military. Type: Target. Nation: USSR. Calibration mission. Tenatively identified as third generation replacement for Taifun-1; launched by Tsyklon 3 launch vehicle and released 36 Romb subsatellites.
SpecificationTotal Mass: 3,000 kg.
Duga-K Chronology
23 December 1988
Cosmos 1985 Launch Site: Plesetsk . Launch Vehicle: Tsyklon 3. Perigee: 206 km. Apogee: 220 km. Inclination: 73.5 deg. Radar calibration mission. Believed to be a modernised version of the Taifun-1 satellite. Released 36 Romb radar calibration subsatellites.
27 December 1989
Cosmos 2053 Launch Site: Plesetsk . Launch Vehicle: Tsyklon 3. Mass: 3,000 kg. Perigee: 405 km. Apogee: 410 km. Inclination: 73.5 deg. Believed to be a modernised version of the Taifun-1 satellite, built by NPO Yuzhnoe. The satellite carried 36 small Calibration Spherical Object subsatellites to test Russian radars. These were released between December 27, 1989 and November 1, 1991. While Cosmos 2053 re-entered in 1997, by May 1999 the S5M upper stage was still in a 471 km x 485 km x 73.5 deg orbit. An on-board explosion blew it into 25 new objects.
Bibliography:- 102 - Voevodin, Sergey A, VSA072 - Space Apparatus, "Sergey A. Voevodin's Reports", . HTML when accessed: http://www.mcs.net/~rusaerog/sergeyv/VSA.html
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Last update 12 March 2001.
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