Mercury Redstone 2

  1961-S31

---

MR-2 was launched on 1961 Jan 31 carrying the chimpanzee Ham. The LOX supply depleted early, and the final velocity was high at 2.62 km/s. The capsule separated early, the escape tower fired adding 150 m/s, and the retros jettisoned without firing, letting MR-2 reach -6200 x 251 km x 30.7 deg. Cabin pressure was lost during ascent but Ham's suit protected him. Range was 679 km.

MR-2
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1961 Jan 13	1654:51	Launch	CC
	1657:08	T+2:17 Redstone MECO
	1657:09	T+2:18 Escape tower burn
		Apogee 252.2 km
	1704:11	T+9:20 Entry
	1705:45	Drogue parachute
	1706:19	Main parachute
	1711:20	T+16:29 Splashdown
	2040	Spacecraft recovered by LSD Donner

Molniya 138

 1977-082A

---

Molniya-1 (F43, N38) was launched on 1977 Aug 30 from Plesetsk into the F plane.

Molniya-1 F43
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1977 Aug 30	1806	Launch by 8K78M	PL
		BVGD sep
		GO sep
		T+4:46 Blok A sep
		T+4:56 KhO sep
		T+8:46 Blok-I MECO
	1814	T+8:50 Blok-I sep
		T+53:16 BOZ burn
	1859?	T+53:56 BOZ sep
		ML burn
		T+56:46 ML MECO
	1902?	T+56:54 ML sep
1977 Aug 31			735.6 445 x 40785 x 62.8