Kosmos 159 (russian: Космос 159, meaning ''Cosmos 159''), E-6LS No.111, was one of many

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 radioi ...

s designed during the

Soviet space program The Soviet space program (russian: Космическая программа СССР, Kosmicheskaya programma SSSR) was the national space program of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), active from 1955 until the dissoluti ...

given the designation Kosmos. This satellite was specifically designed to be a high orbit satellite used to gain information on trajectory anomalies caused by the Moon's gravitational pull. This data would have been vital to the Soviet space program and could have been key in successful manned missions to the Moon. This mission was also used to test

radio communications Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

in space.Zelenyi, L. M., A. V. Zakharov, and O. V. Zakutnyaya. "Will the Lunar Renaissance Come Forth?" Solar System Research 45.7, 2011, pp. 697-704, ProQuest, 15 April 2016.

Spacecraft

Kosmos 159 was a one-off high apogee Earth satellite developed to acquire data on new telecommunications systems for upcoming crewed missions to the Moon. Besides a usual complement of telemetry and communications equipment, the vehicle also carried a transceiver as part of the long-range communications system (Dal'nyy radiokompleks, DRK) and the BR-9-7 telemetry system, equipment designed to work with the new SaturnMS-DRK ground station located near the village of Saburovo, about from NIP-14, a station, close to Moscow, belonging to the Soviet ground-based tracking network. The spacecraft was similar to

Luna 11 Luna 11 (E-6LF series) was an uncrewed space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna program. It was also called Lunik 11. Luna 11 was launched towards the Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satelli ...

but had a slightly lengthened (by ) instrument container so as to accommodate the modified DRK and new BR-9-7 telemetry systems.Siddiqi, Asif A. "BEYOND EARTH: A CHRONICLE OF DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION, 1958–2016", 2018, pp. 87-88, 17 April 2020, https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/beyond-earth-tagged.pdf

Mission

The Kosmos 159 was launched 16 May 1967 at 21:43:57 GMT, which was a radio-equipped version of the E-6 used to test tracking and communications networks for the Soviet crewed lunar program. The objective of the mission was to acquire data on trajectory measurement techniques for future crewed lunar missions. Kosmos 159 was planned to go into a very high apogee (250,000 km) orbit, but the Blok L upper stage is to have cut off too early, leaving the spacecraft in 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 ell ...

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 ell ...

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 reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Eart ...

of 51.8°, 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 1174.0 minutes. Despite the incorrect orbit, controllers were able to accomplish the original mission, carried out over a period of nine days during which it was discovered that the energy potential of the UHF downlink from the spacecraft to the ground was 1–2 orders magnitude below the calculated value. Kosmos 159 reentered the Earth's atmosphere on 11 November 1967. The craft weighed .

References

{{Portal, Spaceflight Soviet space probes