Kosmos 96 (russian: Космос 96 meaning ''Cosmos 96''), or 3MV-4 No.6, 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, ...
spacecraft intended to explore
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...
. A
3MV-4 spacecraft launched as part of the
Venera programme, Kosmos 96 was to have made a flyby of Venus, however, due to a launch failure, it did not depart
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 ...
. Its re-entry into Earth's atmosphere is often speculated as the cause of the
Kecksburg UFO incident
The Kecksburg UFO incident occurred on December 9, 1965, at Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, United States, when a fireball was reported by citizens of six U.S. states and Canada over Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario. Astronomers said it was like ...
.
Mission
This was the third and last spacecraft prepared for a Venus encounter. The 3MV-4 No.6 spacecraft was originally built for a mission to
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...
, with launch scheduled for late 1964. After it was not launched by the end of its launch window, the spacecraft was repurposed, along with two other spacecraft which were launched as
Venera 2
Venera 2 (russian: Венера-2 meaning ''Venus 2''), also known as 3MV-4 No.4 was a Soviet spacecraft intended to explore Venus. A 3MV-4 spacecraft launched as part of the Venera programme, it failed to return data after flying past Venus.
...
and
Venera 3
Venera 3 (russian: Венера-3 meaning ''Venus 3'') was a Venera program space probe that was built and launched by the Soviet Union to explore the surface of Venus. It was launched on 16 November 1965 at 04:19 UTC from Baikonur, Kazakhstan ...
, to explore Venus.
Instruments
The eight scientific instruments were:
* Three-component magnetometer
* An imaging system
* A solar X-radiation detector
* Cosmic ray gas-discharge counters
* Piezoelectric detectors
* Ion traps
* A photon Geiger counter
* Cosmic radio emission receivers
Launch
A
Molniya 8K78 s/n U15000-30 carrier rocket was used to launch 3MV-4 No.6. The launch occurred from
Site 31/6 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 ...
at 03:22 GMT on 23 November 1965.
Late in third stage flight, a fuel line ruptured, causing one of the engine's combustion chambers to explode. The rocket tumbled out of control, and as a result the fourth stage, a
Blok-L, failed to ignite. The spacecraft was deployed 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 51.9° of
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 ...
, and an orbital period of 89.8 minutes. The spacecraft was named ''Kosmos 96'', part of a
series typically used for military and experimental satellites in order to cover up the failure. Had it departed Earth's orbit, it would have received the next designation in the ''Venera'' series, at the time
Venera 4
Venera 4 (russian: Венера-4, lit=Venus-4), also designated 4V-1 No.310, was a probe in the Soviet Venera program for the exploration of Venus. The probe comprised a lander, designed to enter the Venusian atmosphere and parachute to the s ...
. Kosmos 96 was destroyed when it
re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on 9 December 1965.
The Great Lakes fireball and Kecksburg incident
There is some speculation that the re-entry of the Kosmos 96 (Venera-type spacecraft) was responsible for a fireball that was seen over southwestern Ontario, Canada, and at least eight US states from Michigan to New York at 21:43 GMT on 9 December 1965. Investigations of photographs and sightings of the fireball indicated its path through the atmosphere was probably too steep to be consistent with a spacecraft re-entering from Earth orbit and was more likely a meteor in a prograde orbit from the vicinity of the asteroid belt, and probably ended its flight over western Lake Erie. U.S. Air Force tracking data on Kosmos 96 also indicate the spacecraft orbit decayed earlier than 21:43 GMT on 9 December 1965. Other unconfirmed reports state the fireball subsequently landed in Pennsylvania southeast of Pittsburgh near the town of Kecksburg (40.2 N, 79.5 W) at 21:46 EST (although estimating the impact point of fireballs from eyewitness accounts is notoriously inaccurate). Uncertainties in the orbital information and re-entry coordinates and time make it difficult to determine definitively if the fireball could have been the Kosmos 96 spacecraft.
See also
*
List of missions to Venus
There have been 46 (including gravity-assist flybys) space missions to the planet Venus. Missions to Venus constitute part of the exploration of Venus.
List
As of 2020, the Soviet Union, United States, European Space Agency and Japan have con ...
References
{{Orbital launches in 1965
Spacecraft launched in 1965
Venera program
Satellite launch failures
Spacecraft which reentered in 1965
3MV
Space accidents and incidents in the Soviet Union