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
The Soyuz programme ( , ; russian: link=no, Союз , meaning "Union") is a human spaceflight programme initiated by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s. The Soyuz spacecraft was originally part of a Moon landing project intended to put a So ...
descent module for landing scientific instruments and test objects.
Mission
Because of the lethal outcome of both the
Soyuz 1
Soyuz 1 (russian: Союз 1, ''Union 1'') was a crewed spaceflight of the Soviet space program. Launched into orbit on 23 April 1967 carrying cosmonaut colonel Vladimir Komarov, Soyuz 1 was the first crewed flight of the Soyuz spacecraft. Th ...
and the
Apollo 1
Apollo 1, initially designated AS-204, was intended to be the first crewed mission of the Apollo program, the American undertaking to land the first man on the Moon. It was planned to launch on February 21, 1967, as the first low Earth orbita ...
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 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 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 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 Union — Kosmos 186 on 31 October 1967 and Kosmos 188 on 2 November 1967. But according to Boris Chertok, "one of the vehicles was destroyed by the emergency destruction system". (See B.Chertok, Rockets and People, Vol.IV, Chapter 8, page 156)
Kosmos 186 (Soyuz 7K-OK No.6) launched first on 27 October 1967 and underwent a meticulous on-orbit checkout, followed by Kosmos 188 three days later. With Kosmos 186 taking the active role in the docking, the two craft docked just 62 minutes after the launch of Kosmos 188 (Soyuz 7K-OK No.5), the passive target spacecraft. The two craft remained mechanically docked for three and a half hours, although an electrical connection could not be made. The descent module of Kosmos 186 was successfully recovered in the Soviet Union on 31 October 1967, but the accidental firing of the self-destruct mechanism of Kosmos 188 during the descent prevented its recovery on 2 November 1967. Despite the anomalies, the automatic docking mission demonstrated a new capability for the Soviet Union that proved valuable to their future human space flight programs. Although the Soviet lunar landing programme was cancelled before an actual landing mission, automatic dockings were an integral component of their
Salyut
The ''Salyut'' programme (russian: Салют, , meaning "salute" or "fireworks") was the first space station programme, undertaken by the Soviet Union. It involved a series of four crewed scientific research space stations and two crewed ...
and
Mir
''Mir'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...
space station programs and remain in practice today on the Russian segment of the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...
.
This mission proved it possible to launch smaller parts and assemble them in space, thus eliminating the need for exceedingly large rockets for larger undertakings like a
space station.
NASA 50 Years Ago: The First Automatic Docking in Space, 19 October 2017
References
External links
yourtube Kosmos 186 and Kosmos 188
Soyuz uncrewed test flights
Spacecraft launched in 1967
1967 in the Soviet Union
Kosmos satellites
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