Kosmos 2 (russian: Космос 2 meaning ''Cosmos 2''), also known as 1MS No.1 and occasionally in the West as Sputnik 12 was a technology demonstration and a scientific research

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 ...

launched by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

in 1962. It was the second satellite to be designated under the Kosmos system, and the first spacecraft to be launched as part of the MS programme.

Spacecraft

Its primary missions were to develop systems for future satellites, and to record data about

cosmic ray Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our own ...

s and

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visi ...

. It had a mass of 285 kg.

Mission

It was launched aboard Kosmos-2I 63S1 s/n 5LK. It was the fourth flight of the Kosmos-2I, and the second to successfully reach orbit. The launch was conducted from Mayak-2 at

Kapustin Yar Kapustin Yar (russian: Капустин Яр) is a Russian rocket launch complex in Astrakhan Oblast, about 100 km east of Volgograd. It was established by the Soviet Union on 13 May 1946. In the beginning, Kapustin Yar used technology, material ...

, and occurred at 17:16:00 GMT on 6 April 1962. Kosmos 2 was placed into 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 m ...

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 49.0°, 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 102.5 minutes. It decayed on 20 August 1963. Kosmos 2 was a 1MS satellite, the first of two to be launched. The second was launched on 25 October 1962 but failed to reach orbit. The 1MS was the first of two types of MS satellite to be launched and was succeeded by the 2MS satellite.

References

Spacecraft launched in 1962 1962 in the Soviet Union Kosmos 0002 Spacecraft which reentered in 1963 {{USSR-spacecraft-stub

Spacecraft

Mission

See also

References