Kosmos 24 (russian: Космос 24 meaning ''Cosmos 24'') or Zenit-2 No.15 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, ...

optical film-return

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 ...

. It was a first generation, low resolution spacecraft. A Zenit-2 satellite, Kosmos 24 was the fifteenth of eighty-one such spacecraft to be launched and had a mass of . A Vostok-2 rocket, serial number G15001-03, was used to launch Kosmos 24. The launch took place at 09:28:58 UTC on 19 December 1963, 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 ...

. Following its successful arrival in orbit the spacecraft received its Kosmos designation, along with the International Designator 1963-052A and the Satellite Catalog Number 00712. Kosmos 24 was operated in 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 ...

. On 19 December 1963, it had 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 , with

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 90.5 minutes. Having spent nine days in orbit, the spacecraft was deorbited on 28 December 1963. Its return capsule descended under parachute for recovery by Soviet forces.

References

Spacecraft launched in 1963 Kosmos satellites Spacecraft which reentered in 1963 Zenit-2 satellites {{USSR-spacecraft-stub