Kosmos 11 (russian: Космос 11 meaning ''Cosmos 11''), also known as DS-A1 No.1 was a technology demonstration

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

which was launched by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in 1962. It was the eleventh satellite to be designated under the Kosmos system, and the fourth spacecraft launched as part of the DS programme to successfully reach orbit, after

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 firs ...

Kosmos 6 Kosmos 6 (russian: Космос 6 meaning ''Cosmos 6''), also known as DS-P1 No.1 as part of the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik programme and occasionally in the West as Sputnik 16 was a prototype radar target satellite for anti-ballistic missile tests ...

and

Kosmos 8 Kosmos 8 (russian: Космос 8 meaning ''Cosmos 8''), also known as DS-K-8 No.1 and occasionally in the West as Sputnik 18 was a technology demonstration satellite which was launched by the Soviet Union in 1962. It was the eighth satellite to ...

. Its primary mission was to demonstrate technologies for future Soviet military satellites.

Spacecraft

The DS-A1 satellites were developed by Yuzhnoye to test the techniques and equipment for communication and navigation systems and performed radiation measurements. It had a mass of .

Launch

It was launched aboard the ninth flight of the

Kosmos-2I Kosmos-2I (GRAU Index: 11K63, also known as Cosmos-2I and also known by the designation Kosmos-2) is the designation applied to two Soviet carrier rockets, members of the R-12 Kosmos rocket family, which were used to orbit satellites between 196 ...

63S1 rocket. The launch was conducted from Mayak-2 at

Kapustin Yar Kapustin Yar (russian: Капустин Яр) is a Russian rocket launch complex in Astrakhan Oblast, about 100 km east of Volgograd. It was established by the Soviet Union on 13 May 1946. In the beginning, Kapustin Yar used technology, material ...

on 20 October 1962 at 03:50:00 GMT.

Mission

Kosmos 11 was placed into a low Earth orbit 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 49.0°, 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 96.1 minutes. It decayed on 18 May 1964. Kosmos 11 was the first of seven DS-A1 satellites to be launched. The next DS-A1 launched will be Kosmos 17, on 22 May 1963.

References

Spacecraft launched in 1962 Kosmos satellites 1962 in the Soviet Union Spacecraft which reentered in 1964 Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik program {{USSR-spacecraft-stub