Kosmos 146

  1967-021A

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L-1 No. 2P ('P' for simplified) was launched on 1967 Mar 10 aboard a Proton-K with the first 11S824 Blok-D upper stage and the first 8D49-powered Proton third stage. The 7K-L1 11F91 No. 2P spacecraft was given the code name Kosmos-146; it was boosted to a 'simulated Moon', i.e. an elliptical orbit with apogee at lunar distance. The flight caused some statistical confusion, since it was included in Soviet totals of flights which reached the `second cosmic velocity' (Earth escape speed). The spacecraft was not recovered; some reports suggested attitude control may have failed on reentry, but Kamanin's diaries suggest that recovery was not intended and that the flight was a test of the Blok-D second burn, not a reentry test. Chertok's memoirs describe it as a test of 'acceleration to lunar reentry velocity'.

The Blok-D second burn was about 24h after launch and occurred over the USSR, simulating the wait for rendezvous and docking by another Soyuz. The flight appears to have lasted at least 42 hours; the RDM-3 radio beacon lasted that long even though it was meant to switch off after the second burn.

A nominal apogee of 400000 km would lead to an entry on Mar 22, but small differences in velocity could lead to entry as early as Mar 17 or as late as mid-April, or indeed to escape into solar orbit.

Kosmos-146
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1967 Mar 10	1130:32	Launch by Proton-K	KB
	1136	Stage 3 burn
	1140?	Stage 3 cutoff	-1400? x 200 x 51.5
		Adapter sep
	1141?	Blok-D burn 1:49
	1143?	Blok-D cutoff, orbit insertion
		SOK cone sep
		SOZ sep	89.25 180 x 294 x 51.44 (A)
	1843		89.24 184 x 290 x 51.51
1967 Mar 11	1235		89.22 184 x 287 x 51.5
1967 Mar 11	1255:30	Blok-D burn to high apogee	200? x 400000?
1967 Mar 17?		Apogee
1967 Mar 17	2300?	Entry (apo = 258k)
1967 Mar 22	0800?	Reentered?
	?	Entry (apo = 400k)
1967 Apr 18		Entry ( apo = 871k)