Kosmos 608

Kosmos 608 (Russian: Космос 608 meaning Cosmos 608), known before launch as DS-P1-Yu No.69, 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]

Launch

Kosmos 608 was successfully launched into low Earth orbit at 12:29:58 UTC on 20 November 1973.^[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, the satellite was assigned its Kosmos designation, and received the International Designator 1973-091A.^[4] The North American Aerospace Defense Command assigned it the catalogue number 06941.

Kosmos 608 was the sixty-sixth of seventy nine DS-P1-Yu satellites to be launched,^[1] and the sixtieth of seventy two to successfully reach orbit.^[5] It was operated in an orbit with a perigee of 265 kilometres (165 mi), an apogee of 486 kilometres (302 mi), 70.9 degrees of inclination, and an orbital period of 92.1 minutes.^[6] It remained in orbit until it decayed and reentered the atmosphere on 10 July 1974.^[6]

See also

• 1973 in spaceflight

References