Kosmos 10 (russian: Космос 10 meaning ''Cosmos 10''), also known as Zenit-2 No.5, was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

reconnaissance satellite A reconnaissance satellite or intelligence satellite (commonly, although unofficially, referred to as a spy satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications. The ...

launched in 1962. It was the tenth satellite to be designated under the Kosmos system, and the fourth successful launch of a Soviet reconnaissance satellite, following

Kosmos 4 Kosmos 4 (russian: Космос 4 meaning ''Kosmos 4''), also known as Zenit-2 No.2 and occasionally in the West as Sputnik 14 was the first Soviet reconnaissance satellite to successfully reach orbit. Spacecraft Kosmos 4 was a Zenit-2 satel ...

Kosmos 7 Kosmos 7 (russian: Космос 7 meaning ''Cosmos 7''), also known as Zenit-2 No.4 and occasionally in the West as Sputnik 17 was a Soviet reconnaissance satellite launched in 1962. It was the seventh satellite to be designated under the Kosmo ...

and

Kosmos 9 Kosmos 9 (russian: Космос 9 meaning ''Cosmos 9''), also known as Zenit-2 No.7, was a Soviet reconnaissance satellite launched in 1962. It was the ninth satellite to be designated under the Kosmos system, and the third successful launch of ...

Spacecraft

Kosmos 10 was a

Zenit-2 The Zenit-2 is a Ukrainian, previously Soviet, expendable carrier rocket. First flown in 1985, it has been launched 37 times, with 6 failures. It is a member of the Zenit family of rockets and was designed by the Yuzhmash. History With 13–15 ...

satellite, a first generation, low resolution, reconnaissance satellite derived from the

Vostok spacecraft Vostok (russian: Восток, translated as "East") was a class of single-pilot crewed spacecraft built by the Soviet Union. The first human spaceflight was accomplished with Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961, by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. The V ...

used for crewed flights, the satellites were developed by OKB-1. In addition to reconnaissance, it was also used for research into

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visi ...

in support of the

Vostok programme The Vostok programme (russian: Восток, , ''Orient'' or ''East'') was a Soviet human spaceflight project to put the first Soviet citizens into low Earth orbit and return them safely. Competing with the United States Project Mercury, it succ ...

. It had a mass of .

Mission

The Vostok-2, s/n T15000-03, was used to launch Kosmos 10. The launch was conducted from Site 1/5 at the

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome ( kk, Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, translit=Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy, ; russian: Космодром Байконур, translit=Kosmodrom Baykonur, ) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to R ...

, and occurred at 09:21

GMT Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...

on 21 October 1962. Kosmos 10 was placed into a

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...

with a

perigee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any ellip ...

of , an

apogee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any ellip ...

of , an

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a Plane of reference, reference plane and the orbital plane or Axis of rotation, axis of direction of the orbiting object ...

of 65.0°, and an

orbital period The orbital period (also revolution period) is the amount of time a given astronomical object takes to complete one orbit around another object. In astronomy, it usually applies to planets or asteroids orbiting the Sun, moons orbiting planets ...

of 90.2 minutes. It conducted a four-day mission, before being deorbited and landing by

parachute A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag or, in a ram-air parachute, aerodynamic lift. A major application is to support people, for recreation or as a safety device for aviators, who ...

on 21 October 1962, and recovered by the Soviet forces in the steppe in Kazakhstan. It was the last four-day test flight of the Zenit-2 programme, before the system became fully operational and began making eight-day full-duration flights from the next mission, Kosmos 12.

References

Spacecraft launched in 1962 1962 in the Soviet Union Kosmos satellites Spacecraft which reentered in 1962 {{USSR-spacecraft-stub

Spacecraft

Mission

See also

References