Kosmos 611

Kosmos 611 (Russian: Космос 611 meaning Cosmos 611), known before launch as DS-P1-Yu No.64, was a Soviet satellite which was launched in 1973 as part of the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik programme. It was a 400-kilogram (880 lb) spacecraft, which was built by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, and was used as a radar calibration target for anti-ballistic missile tests.^[1]

Kosmos 611 was successfully launched into low Earth orbit at 09:29:58 UTC on 28 November 1973.^[2] The launch took place from Site 133/1 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome,^[3] and used a Kosmos-2I 63SM carrier rocket. Upon reaching orbit, the satellite was assigned its Kosmos designation, and received the International Designator 1973-094A.^[4] The North American Aerospace Defense Command assigned it the catalogue number 06952.

Kosmos 611 was the sixty-seventh of seventy nine DS-P1-Yu satellites to be launched,^[1] and the sixty-first of seventy two to successfully reach orbit.^[5] It was operated in an orbit with a perigee of 264 kilometres (164 mi), an apogee of 466 kilometres (290 mi), 70.9 degrees of inclination, and an orbital period of 91.8 minutes.^[6] It remained in orbit until it decayed and reentered the atmosphere on 19 June 1974.^[6]

See also

• 1973 in spaceflight

References