Success
Zenit-2 59
Government/Top Secret
Soviet Space Program(CCCP)Government
Voskhod
LEOorbit
Zenit-2 film-return and ELINT reconnaissance satellite.
Tuesday, March 5, 1968 at 12:30 PM
Mission details
Orbital Attempt
#805
CCCP Mission
#298
Pad Launch
#28
Location Launch
#42
Designator
1968-016
Launch Window
NET
Mar 5, 1968, 12:30 PM
Schedule Changes
1 update
Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation
Plesetsk Cosmodrome is a Russian spaceport located in Mirny, Arkhangelsk Oblast, about 800 km north of Moscow and approximately 200 km south of Arkhangelsk. Originally developed as an ICBM site for the R-7 missile, it also served for numerous satellite launches using the R-7 and other rockets. Its high latitude makes it useful only for certain types of launches, especially the Molniya orbits, so for much of the site's history it functioned as a secondary location, with most orbital launches taking place from Baikonur, in the Kazakh SSR. With the end of the Soviet Union, Baikonur became a foreign territory, and Kazakhstan charged $115 million usage fees annually. Consequently, Plesetsk has seen considerably more activity since the 2000s.
Timezone
Europe/Moscow
Local Launch Time
Mar 5, 1968, 3:30 PM
Total Launches
1,685
Total Landings
0
Coordinates
62.9256, 40.5778
Voskhod Specs
Reusable
No
Maiden Flight
1963
Fastest Turnaround
19h 37m
Total Launches
299
Successful
286
Failed
13
Consecutive Success
46
Maiden flight: Nov 16, 1963
Soviet Space Program
The Soviet space program, was the national space program of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) actived from 1930s until disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Soviet Union's space program was mainly based on the cosmonautic exploration of space and the development of the expandable launch vehicles, which had been split between many design bureaus competing against each other. Over its 60-years of history, the Russian program was responsible for a number of pioneering feats and accomplishments in the human space flight, including the first intercontinental ballistic missile (R-7), first satellite (Sputnik 1), first animal in Earth orbit (the dog Laika on Sputnik 2), first human in space and Earth orbit (cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1), first woman in space and Earth orbit (cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova on Vostok 6), first spacewalk (cosmonaut Alexei Leonov on Voskhod 2), first Moon impact (Luna 2), first image of the far side of the Moon (Luna 3) and unmanned lunar soft landing (Luna 9), first space rover (Lunokhod 1), first sample of lunar soil automatically extracted and brought to Earth (Luna 16), and first space station (Salyut 1). Further notable records included the first interplanetary probes: Venera 1 and Mars 1 to fly by Venus and Mars, respectively, Venera 3 and Mars 2 to impact the respective planet surface, and Venera 7 and Mars 3 to make soft landings on these planets.
Founded
1931
Total Launches
2,456
Successful
2,288
Failed
168
Pending
0
Consecutive Success
17