The Kosmos (also spelled Cosmos, Russian: ) rockets were 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 ...

and subsequently Russian rockets, derived from the R-12 and R-14 missiles, the best known of which is the

Kosmos-3M The Kosmos-3M ( meaning "''Cosmos''", GRAU index 11K65M) was a Russian space launch vehicle, member of the Kosmos (rocket family), Kosmos rocket family. It was a liquid-fueled two-stage launch vehicle, first launched in 1967 and with over 420 s ...

, which has made over 440 launches. The Kosmos family contained a number of rockets, both

carrier rocket A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistag ...

s and

sounding rocket A sounding rocket or rocketsonde, sometimes called a research rocket or a suborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are often ...

s, for

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit (also known as orbital revolution) is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an ...

al and

sub-orbital A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched. Hence, it will not complete one orbital revolution, will no ...

spaceflight respectively. The first variant, the Kosmos, first flew on 27 October 1961. Over 700 Kosmos rockets have been launched overall.

Variants

Based on the R-12

Kosmos

Kosmos (

GRAU The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (), commonly referred to by its transliterated acronym GRAU (), is a department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is subordinate to the Chief of ...

Index: 63S1, also known as Cosmos), was the name of a Soviet space rocket model active between 1961 and 1967. Kosmos was developed from the R-12 medium-range missile. It was launched a total of 38 times, with twelve failures.

Kosmos-2M

The Kosmos-2M (GRAU Index: 63S1M, also known as Cosmos-2M) rocket was the prototype preceding the Kosmos-2I rocket. It launched the Kosmos 106 and Kosmos 97 satellites, from Area 86 at

Kapustin Yar Kapustin Yar () is a Russian military training area and a rocket launch complex in Astrakhan Oblast, about 100 km east of Volgograd. It was established by the Soviet Union on 13 May 1946. In the beginning, Kapustin Yar used technology, material ...

Kosmos-2I

Kosmos-2I (GRAU Index: 11K63, also known as Cosmos-2I or Kosmos-2), derived from the R-12 missile, was used to orbit satellites between 1961 and 1977. It was superseded by the R-14 derived Kosmos-3 and Kosmos-3M.

Based on the R-14

Kosmos-1

The Kosmos-1 (GRAU Index: 65S3, also known as Cosmos-1) was derived from the R-14 missile and used between 1964 and 1965, being quickly replaced by the Kosmos-3. Eight Kosmos-1 were flown, all launched from Site 41/15 at the

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian Human spaceflight, crewed spaceflights are l ...

. Initial development was authorised in October 1961, leading to a maiden flight on 18 August 1964, carrying three

Strela Strela (, ''arrow'') may refer to: Russian/Soviet technology Anti-aircraft missiles * 9K31 Strela-1, a.k.a. SA-9 Gaskin * 9K32 Strela-2, a.k.a. SA-7 Grail * 9K34 Strela-3, a.k.a. SA-14 Gremlin * 9K35 Strela-10, a.k.a. SA-13 Gopher Other * Strela ...

satellites. Strela-1 satellites were flown on seven flights, three on each of the first four and five on the next three. The eighth and final flight carried one. All flights were successful except the second.

Kosmos-3

The Kosmos-3 (GRAU Index: 11K65, also known as Cosmos-3), derived from the R-14 missile, was used to orbit satellites between 1966 and 1968, being quickly replaced by the modernised Kosmos-3M. Six were flown, four as orbital carrier rockets, and two on sub-orbital flights. All launches occurred from Site 41/15 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Kosmos-3 made its maiden flight on 16 November 1966, carrying a Strela-2 satellite. Strela-2 satellites were flown on four flights, two of which failed. Two further, sub-orbital launches were conducted with payloads, both of which were successful.

Kosmos-3M

The Kosmos-3M was a liquid-fueled two-stage launch vehicle, first launched in 1967 and with over 420 successful launches to its name. The Kosmos-3M used

UDMH Unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (abbreviated as UDMH; also known as 1,1-dimethylhydrazine, heptyl or Geptil) is a chemical compound with the formula H2NN(CH3)2 that is primarily used as a rocket propellant. At room temperature, UDMH is a colorle ...

fuel and AK27I oxidizer (red fuming nitric acid) to lift roughly of payload into orbit. It differed from the earlier Kosmos-3 in its finer control of the second-stage burn, allowing operators to tune the thrust and even channel it through nozzles that helped orient the rocket for the launching of multiple satellites at one time. PO Polyot manufactured these launch vehicles in the Russian city of

Omsk Omsk (; , ) is the administrative center and largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Omsk Oblast, Russia. It is situated in southwestern Siberia and has a population of over one million. Omsk is the third List of cities and tow ...

for decades. It was originally scheduled to be retired from service in 2011; however, in April 2010 the Commander of the Russian Space Forces confirmed that it would be retired by the end of 2010. One further launch, with Kanopus-ST, was planned; however, this was cancelled in late 2012 as the launch vehicle had exceeded its design life while in storage ahead of the launch.

Kosmos-3MR

The Kosmos-3MR rocket (GRAU Index: K65M-R and K65M-RB, also known as Cosmos-3MR), was an adaptation of the Kosmos-3M rocket intended for suborbital and a single orbital launch for BOR-4 and BOR-5 subscale tests of

Spiral In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a point, moving further away as it revolves around the point. It is a subtype of whorled patterns, a broad group that also includes concentric objects. Two-dimensional A two-dimension ...

and Buran crewed spaceplanes.

Launches

References

{{Russian launch vehicles Rocket families Space launch vehicles of the Soviet Union Energia rocket engines