Kosmos 186 (russian: Космос-186 meaning ''Cosmos 186'') and Kosmos 188 (russian: Космос-188 meaning ''Cosmos 188'') were two uncrewed Soviet Union spacecraft that incorporated a
Soyuz programme descent module for landing scientific instruments and test objects.
Mission
Because of the lethal outcome of both the
Soyuz 1 and the
Apollo 1 missions earlier that year it was decided to proceed with unmanned flights first. But because the Soviet Union had no ground stations outside its own territory, this meant the docking had to be fully automated. After the first attempt failed (a fly by at a distance of ), the second attempt succeeded over the South Atlantic. However, this docking was not entirely successful either — the modules were mechanically docked, but not electrically. Also, the manoeuvre had cost more fuel than anticipated.
On 27 October 1967 at 09:29:59 GMT, the
Soyuz 11A511 s/n U15000-05 booster and Kosmos 186 were set up at
Site 31/6 of
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 the planned mission could be carried out. Kosmos 186 was operated in a low Earth orbit, it had a perigee of , an apogee of , an inclination of 51.7°, and an orbital period of 88.7 minutes,
and had a mass of .
[ ]
On 30 October 1967 at 08:12:41 GMT, the
Soyuz 11A511 s/n N15000-07 booster and Kosmos 188 were set up at
Site 1/5 of
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 the planned mission could be carried out. Kosmos 188 was operated in a low Earth orbit, it had a perigee of , an apogee of , an inclination of 51.7°, and an orbital period of 89.0 minutes,
and had a mass of .
[ ]
The two Soviet spacecraft made the first fully automated
space docking in the history of
space exploration
Space exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. While the exploration of space is carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration though is conducted both by robotic spacec ...
on 30 October 1967. Mutual search, approach, mooring, and docking were automatically performed by the IGLA-system onboard Kosmos 186. After 3.5 hours of joint flight, the satellites parted on a command sent from the Earth and continued to orbit separately. Officially, both made a soft landing in a predetermined region of the Soviet Un