1965-012A
Flight article 3KD No. 1 was launched as Kosmos-57 to test the new Volga airlock. The 3KD variant of Voskhod used the inflatable Volga to allow a crewmember to emerge from the spacecraft for a spacewalk without depressurizing the main cabin, a luxury not available on US spacecraft until Skylab. Two instrumented dummies, probably wearing spacesuits, were placed aboard to verify the airlock, which was to have been jettisoned on the second orbit after the test was complete. However, at 0800 UTC on Feb 22 two ground stations sent simultaneous airlock commands which interfered with one another and were interpreted by the onboard programmer as a deorbit command. The engine fired in the wrong direction, leaving the spacecraft in orbit, and the destruct charge fired to destroy the cabin. NORAD tracked a large number of debris pieces. (Johnson (1980) quoted 0957 UTC as the explosion time).
| Kosmos-57 | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 Feb 22 | 0730 | Launch by 11A57 | KB |
| 0734 | Blok-A sep | ||
| Blok-I burn | |||
| 0739 | Blok-I sep | 90.42 165 x 427 x 64.7 | |
| 0750 | Volga test | ||
| 0805? | Volga test | |
| 0825 | Accidental DU burn | ||
| Tumbling 78 times a minute | |||
| 0904 | Last commmanding of airlock | ||
| 0905? | Destruct charge fired | ||
| 1965 Feb 25 | First debris reentry | ||
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