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Class: Military. Type: FOBS. Nation: USSR. Fractional Orbital Bombardment System.
SpecificationTotal Mass: 5,000 kg.
FOBS Chronology
16 March 1961
UR-200 (8K81) launch vehicle development authorised. Launch Vehicle: UR-200. An enabling decree was issued on 1 August 1961 by the Central Committee and Politburo. The UR-200 was designed not only to send a thermonuclear warhead over a range of 12,000 km, but also to orbit all of the Kosmoplan military variants: the IS ASAT; the US nuclear-powered naval intelligence satellite; and the Kosmoplan combat re-entry vehicle.
31 August 1961
FOBS threat. U.S.S.R. announced policy of resumption of nuclear weapon testing which had been suspended March 31, 1958, and that bombs can be delivered anywhere in the world by "powerful rockets like those Majs. Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov rode to begin their unrivaled space flights around the Earth."
13 October 1964
Khrushchev ousted from power. Launch Vehicle: UR-200, Proton 8K82K. Brezhnev faction assumes control of Politubro. Brezhnev was adverse to all projects Khrushchev had supported. These included those of Chelomei and his OKB-52.
24 August 1965
Development of R-36-O and Tsyklon launch vehicles authorised Launch Vehicle: R-36-O, Tsyklon, Tsyklon 2, UR-200. Decree 'On Creation of an R-36 Based Carrier Rocket for Launching the IS and US KA--start of work on an R-36-based launch vehicle for the IS and US programs' was issued. After Khrushchev was ousted from power, Chelomei's projects were examined by an expert commission under M V Keldysh. It was found that Yangel�s R-36 rocket was superior to Chelomei�s UR-200. The UR-200 was cancelled; the IS and US satellites would be launched by the R-36 11K67. The Tsyklon 2 definitive operational version replaced the 11K67 launch vehicle from 1969.
16 December 1965
FOBS Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O.
05 February 1966
FOBS Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O.
16 March 1966
FOBS Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O.
19 May 1966
FOBS Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O.
17 September 1966
Unknown Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O. Mass: 4,250 kg. Perigee: 138 km. Apogee: 792 km. Inclination: 49.6 deg. Possible Fractional Orbital Bombardment System test.
02 November 1966
Unknown Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O. Mass: 4,400 kg. Perigee: 188 km. Apogee: 651 km. Inclination: 49.7 deg. Possible Fractional Orbital Bombardment System test.
25 January 1967
Cosmos 139 Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O. Mass: 5,000 kg. Perigee: 144 km. Apogee: 210 km. Inclination: 49.7 deg. Fractional Orbital Bombardment System test. Investigation of the upper atmosphere and outer space.
22 March 1967
FOBS Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O. FAILURE: Failure.
17 May 1967
Cosmos 160 Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O. Mass: 5,000 kg. Perigee: 137 km. Apogee: 177 km. Inclination: 49.7 deg. Fractional Orbital Bombardment system test. Investigation of the upper atmosphere and outer space.
17 July 1967
Cosmos 169 Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O. Mass: 5,000 kg. Perigee: 135 km. Apogee: 200 km. Inclination: 49.7 deg. Fractional Orbital Bombardment system test. Investigation of the upper atmosphere and outer space.
31 July 1967
Cosmos 170 Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O. Mass: 5,000 kg. Perigee: 141 km. Apogee: 199 km. Inclination: 49.6 deg. Fractional Orbital Bombardment system test. Investigation of the upper atmosphere and outer space.
08 August 1967
Cosmos 171 Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O. Mass: 5,000 kg. Perigee: 138 km. Apogee: 177 km. Inclination: 49.6 deg. Fractional Orbital Bombardment system test. Investigation of the upper atmosphere and outer space.
19 September 1967
Cosmos 178 Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O. Mass: 5,000 kg. Perigee: 138 km. Apogee: 258 km. Inclination: 49.7 deg. Fractional Orbital Bombardment system test. Investigation of the upper atmosphere and outer space.
22 September 1967
Cosmos 179 Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O. Mass: 5,000 kg. Perigee: 139 km. Apogee: 207 km. Inclination: 49.6 deg. Fractional Orbital Bombardment system test. Investigation of the upper atmosphere and outer space.
18 October 1967
Cosmos 183 Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O. Mass: 5,000 kg. Perigee: 140 km. Apogee: 306 km. Inclination: 49.6 deg. Fractional Orbital Bombardment system test. Investigation of the upper atmosphere and outer space.
28 October 1967
Cosmos 187 Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O. Mass: 5,000 kg. Perigee: 143 km. Apogee: 301 km. Inclination: 49.6 deg. Fractional Orbital Bombardment System test. Investigation of the upper atmosphere and outer space.
25 April 1968
Cosmos 218 Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O. Mass: 5,000 kg. Perigee: 123 km. Apogee: 162 km. Inclination: 49.6 deg. Probable Fractional Orbital Bombardment System test. Investigation of the upper atmosphere and outer space.
21 May 1968
OGCh Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O.
28 May 1968
OGCh Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O.
02 October 1968
Cosmos 244 Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O. Mass: 5,000 kg. Perigee: 140 km. Apogee: 158 km. Inclination: 49.6 deg. Probable Fractional Orbital Bombardment System test. Investigation of the upper atmosphere and outer space.
15 September 1969
Cosmos 298 Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O. Mass: 5,000 kg. Perigee: 127 km. Apogee: 162 km. Inclination: 49.6 deg. Possible Fractional Orbital Bombardment System test. Investigation of the upper atmosphere and outer space.
29 July 1970
Cosmos 354 Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O. Mass: 5,000 kg. Perigee: 137 km. Apogee: 165 km. Inclination: 49.6 deg. Possible Fractional Orbital Bombardment System test.
25 September 1970
Cosmos 365 Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O. Mass: 5,000 kg. Perigee: 145 km. Apogee: 173 km. Inclination: 49.5 deg. Possible Fractional Orbital Bombardment System test. Investigation of the upper atmosphere and outer space.
09 August 1971
Cosmos 433 Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: R-36-O. Mass: 5,000 kg. Perigee: 112 km. Apogee: 299 km. Inclination: 49.4 deg. Possible Fractional Orbital Bombardment System test. Investigation of the upper atmosphere and outer space.
Bibliography:- 2 - McDowell, Jonathan, The United Nations Registry of Space Objects, Harvard University, 1997. HTML when accessed: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/jcm/space/un/un.html
- 6 - JPL Mission and Spacecraft Library, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 1997. HTML when accessed: http://msl.jpl.nasa.gov/home.html
- 279 - McDowell, Jonathan, Launch Log, October 1998. HTML when accessed: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/log/launch.html
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Last update 12 March 2001.
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© Mark Wade, 2001 .