Celebrating 60th anniversary of KOSMOS-3 launch vehicle and STRELA-1 satellites launch
Mikhail Yangel – the director of Experimental Design Bureau-586 located in Dnepropetrovsk, Russia, wielded major influence on the development of enterprise led by Mikhail Reshetnev. In 1961, Mikhail Yangel handed over a rocket construction design documents to Krasnoyarsk Design Bureau. The rocket named KOSMOS-3 was destined to become a satellite launch vehicle while being the first independent product of Reshetnev Company.
In the course of a little over two years, Siberian engineers managed to upgrade Yangel’s design and tripled initially assumed performances such as lifting capacity and injection height. This required a profound change in the rocket appearance – a second stage was added to allow the launch vehicle to inject a satellite into the orbit 1000 km above the Earth.
The first KOSMOS-3 was transported to Baikonur cosmodrome in May 1964. The launch took place on August 18. The launch vehicle injected three experimental STRELA-1 type spacecraft into low circular orbit – KOSMOS-38, KOSMOS-39, KOSMOS-40. The satellites featured transmitters for launch control and in-orbit operations.
Development of the first Reshetnev Company in-house satellites started in the middle of 1961. Construction design documents were also received from Experimental Design Bureau-586 led by M. Yangel. STRELA-1 type satellites were designed to implement an experimental satellite system for special communications. The mass of such satellite was 75 kg, and its lifetime was about three months. First two nominal STRELA-1 type satellites (KOSMOS-42 and KOSMOS-43) were launched on August 22, 1964 from rocket launch complex Kapustin Yar. In 1965 a group launch of a five satellite block was successfully carried out from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Then the same number of more STRELA-1 satellites were sent into space. After that, the first global satellite system began to operate in orbit, which made it possible to ensure regular radio communication.
Based on the results of the system prototype tests using STRELA-1 satellite, a standard communications system based on upgraded STRELA-1M satellites was developed.