Kosmos 481

Kosmos 481 (Russian: Космос 481 meaning Cosmos 481), known before launch as DS-P1-Yu No.46, was a Soviet satellite which was launched in 1972 as part of the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik programme. It was a 375-kilogram (827 lb) spacecraft, which was built by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, and was used as a radar calibration target for anti-ballistic missile tests.^[1]

Launch

Kosmos 481 was successfully launched into low Earth orbit at 10:39:59 UTC on 25 March 1972.^[2] The launch took place from Site 133/1 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome,^[3] and used a Kosmos-2I 63SM carrier rocket.

Orbit

Upon reaching orbit, it was assigned its Kosmos designation, and received the International Designator 1972-020A.^[4] The North American Aerospace Defense Command assigned it the catalogue number 05906.

Kosmos 481 was the fifty-first of seventy nine DS-P1-Yu satellites to be launched,^[1] and the forty-sixth of seventy two to successfully reach orbit.^[5] It was operated in an orbit with a perigee of 262 kilometres (163 mi), an apogee of 478 kilometres (297 mi), 71 degrees of inclination, and an orbital period of 92 minutes.^[1][6] It remained in orbit until it decayed and reentered the atmosphere on 2 September 1972.^[6]

See also

• 1972 in spaceflight

References