Re: Cosmos 382 mission
Phillip Clark (psclark@dircon.co.uk)
Sat, 2 Aug 1997 16:33:26 +0100 (BST)
On Sat, 2 Aug 1997, Alexander Seidel wrote:
> In the Seventies I often observed Cosmos 382 (1970-103A, Cat-No. 4786), an
> enigmatic object in an unusual orbit.
This mission has been described in Russian literature now - for example
the Kamanin Diaries.
This mission and a similar launch failure in November 1969 were
designated L-1E and were primarily tests of the Block D fourth stage atop
Proton-K. These two launches took the L-1 spacecraft which had been
intended for manned circumlunar missions, stripped out the life
support systems and installed a great deal of monitoring equipment. The
primary goal was to test the Block D's manoeuvres for lunar orbit
injection and the descent to the lunar surface while in Earth orbit, to
prove that the Block D could still perform following a simulated quiet
period during the trans-lunar coast. It is unclear whether the L-1
spacecraft separated and performed the final manoeuvre itself - I believe
that it did - leaving the Block D to perform the initial Earth orbit
injection and then two manoeuvres before the L-1 spacecraft separated.
Cosmos 382 appears to have been successful, obviously the November 1969
launch "was not". :-)
Phillip Clark
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Phillip S Clark 25 Redfern Avenue
Molniya Space Consultancy Whitton
Compiler/Publisher, Worldwide Satellite Launches Middx TW4 5NA
Editor, Jane's Space Directory U.K.
Specialist in "space archeology" - the older and more obscure the more
interesting it is !
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