DS-P1-Yu was a series of
Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
satellite
A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...
s developed by the
Yuzhnoye Design Office, for use in calibrating the
Dnestr space surveillance and
early-warning radar system. Between 1964 and 1976, a total of 79 satellites were launched on
Kosmos and
Kosmos-2I launchers, with seven failing to reach orbit.
The
dodecahedral satellites had a mass of and an operational lifetime of 60 days. They were covered in
solar panel
A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...
s and a metallic mesh transparent to
visible spectrum
The visible spectrum is the spectral band, band of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visual perception, visible to the human eye. Electromagnetic radiation in this range of wavelengths is called ''visible light'' (or simply light).
The optica ...
light and opaque to
radio frequencies.
The DS-P1-Yu replaced the similar DS-P1, of which four were launched between 1962 and 1964, with one failure to reach orbit.
References
Soviet military spacecraft
{{USSR-spacecraft-stub