Kosmos 146 (russian: Космос 146 meaning ''Cosmos 146''), also known as L-1 No. 2P, was a Soviet test spacecraft precursor to the Zond series, launched from the

Baikonur Cosmodrome ''Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy'' rus, Космодром Байконур''Kosmodrom Baykonur'' , image = Baikonur Cosmodrome Soyuz launch pad.jpg , caption = The Baikonur Cosmodrome's "Gagarin's Start" Soyuz ...

aboard a

Proton K The Proton-K, also designated Proton 8K82K after its GRAU index or SL-12 after its model number, 8K82K, was a Russian, previously Soviet Union, Soviet, launch vehicle, carrier rocket derived from the earlier Proton (rocket), Proton. It was built ...

rocket. The spacecraft was designed to launch a crew from the Earth to conduct a flyby of the Moon and return to Earth. The primary focus was a Soviet

circumlunar In orbital mechanics, a circumlunar trajectory, trans-lunar trajectory or lunar free return is a type of free return trajectory which takes a spacecraft from Earth, around the far side of the Moon, and back to Earth using only gravity once ...

flight, which help document the Moon, and also show Soviet power. The test ran from the Zond program from 1967-1970, which produced multiple failures in the 7K-L1's re-entry systems. The remaining 7K-L1s were scrapped, ultimately replaced by the

Soyuz 7K-L3 The Soyuz 7K-LOK, or simply LOK (russian: Лунный Орбитальный Корабль, translit=Lunniy Orbitalny Korabl meaning "Lunar Orbital Craft") was a Soviet crewed spacecraft designed to launch men from Earth to orbit the Moon, deve ...

Objectives

Kosmos 146 was a Soviet test precursor to the Zond series, launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome aboard a Proton K rocket. It was launched into a planned highly elliptical Earth orbit. The

Blok D Blok D (russian: Блок Д meaning Block D) is an upper stage used on Soviet and later Russian expendable launch systems, including the N1, Proton-K and Zenit. The stage (and its derivatives) has been included in more than 320 launched r ...

stage functioned correctly in putting the spacecraft into a translunar trajectory. It was not aimed at the Moon and no recovery of the spacecraft was planned or attempted. It was a successful mission that created false confidence just before a string of failures that would follow. Kosmos 146 was launched using a

Proton-K The Proton-K, also designated Proton 8K82K after its GRAU index or SL-12 after its model number, 8K82K, was a Russian, previously Soviet, carrier rocket derived from the earlier Proton. It was built by Khrunichev, and launched from sites 81 an ...

carrier rocket, which flew from Site 81/23 at

Baikonur Baikonur ( kk, Байқоңыр, ; russian: Байконур, translit=Baykonur), formerly known as Leninsk, is a city of republic significance in Kazakhstan on the northern bank of the Syr Darya river. It is currently leased and administered ...

. The launch occurred at 11:30:33 GMT on 10 March 1967 and was successful. Kosmos 146 was operated in an Earth orbit, it had a perigee of , an apogee of , an inclination of 51.5° and an orbital period of 89.2 minutes. Kosmos 146 decayed from orbit on 18 March 1967.

Moon race

By the time the spacecraft was launched, the United States had already thrust into the orbit in their prototype of the lunar vehicle (

AS-201 AS-201 (or SA-201), flown February 26, 1966, was the first uncrewed test flight of an entire production Block I Apollo command and service module and the Saturn IB launch vehicle. The spacecraft consisted of the second Block I command module ...

AS-202 AS-202 (also referred to as SA-202) was the second uncrewed, suborbital test flight of a production Block I Apollo command and service module launched with the Saturn IB launch vehicle. It was launched on August 25, 1966, and was the first fl ...

AS-203 AS-203 (or SA-203) was an uncrewed flight of the Saturn IB rocket on July 5, 1966. It carried no command and service module, as its purpose was to verify the design of the S-IVB rocket stage restart capability that would later be used in the A ...

). The United States could go on to launch manned prototypes of lunar ships before the USSR brought the first unmanned prototype into orbit, but two months before the launch of Kosmos-146, during the fire in the command module, the crew of

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 orbit ...

was killed.

References

External links

* http://militera.lib.ru/db/kamanin_np/index.html * http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Cosmos146/Cosmos146.htm#data * https://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/SP-4225/documentation/mhh/mirheritage.pdf Kosmos satellites Soviet space probes Zond program Spacecraft launched in 1967 1967 in the Soviet Union {{Satellite-stub