Mission type Research
Technology Bus 2MS Decay date 17 October 1962 Launch date 24 April 1962 Inclination 49° Launch mass 305 kg | Harvard designation 1962 Nu 1 Launch site Kapustin Yar Mayak-2 Reference system Geocentric Inclination 49° Period 1.6 hours Launch mass 305 kg | |
Manufacturer S. P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia | ||
Kosmos 3 (Russian: Космос 3 meaning Cosmos 3), also known as 2MS #1 and occasionally in the West as Sputnik 13 was a scientific research and technology demonstration satellite launched by the Soviet Union in 1962. It was the third satellite to be designated under the Kosmos system, and the second spacecraft to be launched as part of the MS programme, after Kosmos 2 which was launched 18 days earlier. Its primary missions were to develop systems for future satellites, and to record data about cosmic rays and radiation.
It was launched aboard Kosmos-2I 63S1 s/n 4LK. It was the fifth flight of the Kosmos-2I, and the third to successfully reach orbit. The launch was conducted from pad 2 of the Mayak Launch Complex at Kapustin Yar, and occurred at 04:00 GMT on 24 April 1962.
Kosmos 3 was placed into a low Earth orbit with a perigee of 204 kilometres (127 mi), an apogee of 1,142 kilometres (710 mi), 49 degrees of inclination, and an orbital period of 93.8 minutes. It decayed on 17 October 1962.
Kosmos 3 was a 2MS satellite, the first of two to be launched. The second was launched as Kosmos 5 on 28 May 1962. The 2MS was the second of two types of MS satellite to be launched, following the first 1MS spacecraft which had been launched as Kosmos 2.