NEXT SPACEFLIGHT

Status

Failure

Zenit-8 n°613

Launch Time
Wed Mar 26, 1986 10:30 UTC

Lateral block G has hit the central block A, causing an explosion.

Rocket

Soyuz U
RVSN USSR
Status: Retired
Price: $20.0 million
Liftoff Thrust: 4,456 kN
Payload to LEO: 6,860 kg
Payload to GTO: 0 kg
Stages: 3
Strap-ons: 4
Rocket Height: 51.32 m
Fairing Diameter: 3.0 m
Fairing Height: 15.59 m

Mission Details

Zenit-8 n°613

Zenit was a series of military photoreconnaissance satellites launched by the Soviet Union between 1961 and 1994.

The basic design of the Zenit satellites was similar to the Vostok crewed spacecraft, sharing the return and service modules. It consisted of a spherical re-entry capsule 2.3 metres in diameter with a mass of around 2,400 kilograms. This capsule contained the camera system, its film, recovery beacons, parachutes and a destruct charge. In orbit, this was attached to a service module that contained batteries, electronic equipment, an orientation system and a liquid fuelled rocket engine that would slow the Zenit for re-entry, before the service module detached. The total length in orbit was around 5 metres.

Unlike the American Corona spacecraft, the return capsule carried both the film and the cameras and kept them in a temperature controlled pressurised environment. This simplified the design and engineering of the camera system but added considerably to the mass of the satellite. An advantage was that cameras could be reused.

Most Zenits flew in a slightly elliptical orbit with a perigee of around 200 kilometres (120 miles) and an apogee between 250 and 350 kilometres (160 and 220 miles); the missions usually lasted between 8 and 15 days.

Payloads: 1
Total Mass: 6,300.0 kg
Low Earth Orbit

Location

Site 31/6, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan

Stats

1986

27th orbital launch attempt

Soyuz U

446th mission
9th mission of 1986
11th failed mission