Kosmos 120 (russian: Космос 120 meaning ''Cosmos 120'') or Zenit-2 No.41 was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, first generation, low resolution, optical film-return

reconnaissance satellite A reconnaissance satellite or intelligence satellite (commonly, although unofficially, referred to as a spy satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications. Th ...

launched in 1966. A

Zenit-2 The Zenit-2 is a Ukrainian, previously Soviet, expendable carrier rocket. First flown in 1985, it has been launched 37 times, with 6 failures. It is a member of the Zenit family of rockets and was designed by the Yuzhmash. History With 13– ...

spacecraft, Kosmos 120 was the thirty-ninth of eighty-one such satellites to be launched and had a mass of . Kosmos 120 was launched by a Voskhod 11A57 serial number N15001-13 carrier rocket, flying from Site 31/6 at the

Baikonur Cosmodrome ''Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy'' rus, Космодром Байконур''Kosmodrom Baykonur'' , image = Baikonur Cosmodrome Soyuz launch pad.jpg , caption = The Baikonur Cosmodrome's "Gagarin's Start" Soyuz ...

. The launch took place at 11:02 GMT on 8 June 1966, and following its successful arrival in orbit the spacecraft received its Kosmos designation; along with the

International Designator The International Designator, also known as COSPAR ID, is an international identifier assigned to artificial objects in space. It consists of the launch year, a three-digit incrementing launch number of that year and up to a three-letter code repr ...

1966-050A and the Satellite Catalog Number 02196. This was the first time a Voskhod had been used to launch a Zenit-2 satellite; previous launches had used Vostok-2 rockets while the Voskhod was typically used to launch Zenit-4 spacecraft. Kosmos 120 was operated in a

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never m ...

, at an

epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided ...

of 8 June 1966, it had a

perigee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any el ...

of , an

apogee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any el ...

of , an

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Ea ...

of 51.8° and an

orbital period The orbital period (also revolution period) is the amount of time a given astronomical object takes to complete one orbit around another object. In astronomy, it usually applies to planets or asteroids orbiting the Sun, moons orbiting pla ...

of 89.4 minutes. After eight days in orbit, Kosmos 120 was deorbited, with its return capsule descending under parachute, landing at 09:36 GMT on 16 June 1966, and recovered by Soviet force.

References

Kosmos satellites Spacecraft launched in 1966 Spacecraft which reentered in 1966 Zenit-2 satellites 1966 in the Soviet Union {{USSR-spacecraft-stub