Mission type Spacecraft test COSPAR ID 1971-069A Spacecraft T2K No.3 Inclination 51.5° Launch mass 7,000 kg | SATCAT no. 5407 Decay date 23 August 1981 Period 3.8 hours Launch date 12 August 1971 | |
 | ||
Similar Soyuz 7K‑OKS, Soyuz 7K‑T, Soyuz 7K‑LOK, Soyuz 7K‑OK, Soyuz 7K‑L1 | ||
Kosmos 434 (Russian: Космос 434; meaning Cosmos 434) was the final unmanned test flight of the Soviet LK Lander. It performed the longest burn of the four unmanned LK Lander tests. It finished in a 186 km by 11,804 km orbit. This test qualified the lander as flightworthy.
The LK was the only element of the Soviet manned lunar programs that reached this status. In 1980-81 there were fears that it might carry nuclear fuel. When in reentered over Australia on August 22, 1981 the Soviet Foreign Ministry in Australia admitted that Kosmos 434 was an “experiment unit of a lunar cabin,” or lunar lander.
References
Kosmos 434 Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA