NEXT SPACEFLIGHT

Status

Success

Cosmos 146

Launch Time
Fri Mar 10, 1967 11:30 UTC

First flight of Proton-K. First flight of the L1 lunar spacecraft.

Rocket

Proton-K/Block D
RVSN USSR
Status: Retired
Liftoff Thrust: 8,840 kN
Payload to LEO: 18,900 kg
Payload to GTO: 9,000 kg
Stages: 4
Strap-ons: 0
Rocket Height: 56.14 m
Fairing Diameter: 3.9 m
Fairing Height: 8.9 m

Mission Details

Cosmos 146

Cosmos 146 was a Soviet test satellite precursor to the Zond series. The spacecraft was designed to launch a crew from the Earth to conduct a flyby and return to Earth.

The Cosmos 146 and 154 flights have been regarded as tests of the Zond complex involving the firing of the fourth stage of the Proton K/Block D rocket to put the L1 spacecraft into an elliptical trajectory to test high speed re-entry.

L1 was a Soviet spacecraft launched on Proton, designed in parallel of 7K-L1, which flew on the N-1 launcher. It was conceived to carry out crewed flybys of the Moon, like Apollo 8. This spacecraft sent the first living beings to fly over the Moon, turtles, on board Zond 5. The work made on this spacecraft will be used for the improvement of the Soyuz spacecraft.

Payloads: 1
Total Mass: 5,017.0 kg
Low Earth Orbit

Location

Site 81/23, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan

Stats

1967

22nd orbital launch attempt

Proton-K

1st mission
1st mission of 1967
1st successful mission