Launch
Sputnik 3 was launched by a modified R-7 Semyorka missile developed for satellite launches, the Sputnik (rocket) 8K91. Following a launch failure on 27 April 1958, a development of Object D finally reached orbit having been launched at 07:00:35 on 15 May 1958, the Soviet Government designated it Sputnik-3. Sputnik 3 was an automatic scientific laboratory spacecraft. It was conically shaped and was 3.57 m long and 1.73 m wide at its base. It weighed 1,327 kg. The scientific instrumentation (twelve instruments) provided data on pressure and composition of the upper atmosphere, concentration of charged particles, photons in cosmic rays, heavy nuclei in cosmic rays, magnetic and electrostatic fields, and meteoric particles. While The Earth's outer radiation belts were detected during the flight, its Tral-D tape recorder failed, so it was unable to map the Van Allen radiation belt. The Soviets, without full evidence were "hog-tied." The spacecraft remained in orbit until April 6, 1960, when the orbit degraded from drag in the upper atmosphere to the point where the satellite reentered the atmosphere, disintegrating before impact.
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Famous quotes containing the word launch:
“I had often stood on the banks of the Concord, watching the lapse of the current, an emblem of all progress, following the same law with the system, with time, and all that is made ... and at last I resolved to launch myself on its bosom and float whither it would bear me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Now launch the small ship, now as the body dies
and life departs, launch out, the fragile soul
in the fragile ship of courage, the ark of faith
with its store of food and little cooking pans
and change of clothes,”
—D.H. (David Herbert)