Kosmos 173 (russian: Космос 173 meaning ''Cosmos 173''), also known as DS-P1-Yu No.8 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, ...

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...

which was used as a radar calibration target for tests of

anti-ballistic missile An anti-ballistic missile (ABM) is a surface-to-air missile designed to counter ballistic missiles (missile defense). Ballistic missiles are used to deliver nuclear, chemical, biological, or conventional warheads in a ballistic flight trajec ...

s. It was a spacecraft, was built by the Yuzhnoye, and launched in 1967 as part of the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik programme. A Kosmos-2I 63SM carrier rocket was used to launch Kosmos 173 from Site 133/1 at

Plesetsk Cosmodrome Plesetsk Cosmodrome ( rus, Космодром «Плесецк», r=Kosmodrom "Plesetsk", p=kəsmɐˈdrom plʲɪˈsʲet͡sk) is a Russian spaceport located in Mirny, Arkhangelsk Oblast, about 800 km north of Moscow and approximately 200 ...

. The launch occurred at 04:59:49 GMT on 24 August 1967, and resulted in Kosmos 173's successful deployment into

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 m ...

. Kosmos 173 was operated in an 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 el ...

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 el ...

of , an

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Ea ...

of 71.0°, 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 pla ...

of 92.3 minutes. It remained in orbit until it decayed and reentered the atmosphere on 17 December 1967. It was the ninth of seventy nine DS-P1-Yu satellites to be launched, and the eighth of seventy two to successfully reach orbit.

References

Spacecraft launched in 1967 Kosmos 0173 1967 in the Soviet Union Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik program {{USSR-spacecraft-stub

See also

References