Kosmos 23

Kosmos 23 (Russian: Космос 23 meaning Cosmos 23), also known as Omega No.2, was a satellite which was launched by the Soviet Union in 1963. It was an Omega satellite, derived from the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik series. It was a 200-kilogram (440 lb) spacecraft,^[1] which was built by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, and was used to conduct experiments with the use of gyroscopes to control spacecraft, for VNIIEM.^[2]

Kosmos 23 was launched from pad 2 of the Mayak Launch Complex at Kapustin Yar, aboard a Kosmos-2I 63S1 carrier rocket.^[3] The launch occurred at 14:15:00 UTC on 13 December 1963, and resulted in the successful insertion of the satellite into a low Earth orbit.^[4] Upon reaching orbit, the satellite was assigned its Kosmos designation, and received the International Designator 1963-050A.^[5] The North American Aerospace Defense Command assigned it the catalogue number 00707.

Kosmos 23 was the second of two Omega satellites to be launched,^[2] after Kosmos 14.^[6] It was operated in an orbit with a perigee of 237 kilometres (147 mi), an apogee of 528 kilometres (328 mi), 48.9 degrees of inclination, and an orbital period of 92.2 minutes.^[7] It remained in orbit until it decayed and reentered the atmosphere on 27 March 1964.^[7]

See also

• 1963 in spaceflight

References