Kosmos 186 and Kosmos 188

Cosmos 186 and Cosmos 188 were two unmanned Soyuz spaceships that carried out the first automatic coupling of the history of space flight on 30 October 1967.

Preparation

The first manned flight of a Soyuz spacecraft in April 1967 had led to disaster. Soyuz 1 had so many shortcomings that the mission had to be aborted. On landing parachutes and the cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was killed failed. After design changes on the Soyuz spacecraft have been made. In order not to endanger life again, an unmanned test flight to prove the reliability of the space ship type. Two unmanned Soyuz spaceships should perform a rendezvous in orbit and possibly also coupled. The landing was an important part of the mission, for position control and parachutes had not given rise to major problems.

One of the two conditions laid down spaceships, the one with the serial number 5, was previously scheduled for manned space flight Soyuz 2 in April 1967, but then did not play due to the problems of Soyuz 1.

The flight took place during the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. Originally a manned flight to the moon was at this anniversary provided, but problems with the Soyuz spacecraft and Proton rocket had led to increasing delays.

Start

Cosmos 186 was launched on 27 October at 09:30 UT from the launch pad of the cosmodrome Baikonur 1. Two days later, the orbit was raised slightly. Three days later, on October 30, 1967 at 08:12 UT followed Cosmos 188 after reaching Earth orbit, the two spacecraft were in the 24 kilometers distance from each other.

Coupling

Cosmos 186 had the Igla system, which should enable automatic approaching and paddocks. Since the ground stations were limited to the territory of the Soviet Union, the ships could not be controlled remotely. In the first experiment cosmos was 186, which took over when docking the active role even flew a distance of 900 meters, the second attempt was successful. Coupling was carried out at 09:20 UT over the South Atlantic beyond the reach of Soviet ground stations. With a lateral motion of the spacecraft in the final phase of the approach of the coupling mechanism did not lock completely. Thus, the coupling was not complete, so that the ships were indeed connected mechanically, but not electrically.

Cosmos 186 had ignited the engines during the Rendezvous 28 times and consumes far more fuel than expected with a burning time of 200 seconds.

Counter 12:50 UT, the two spaceships were decoupled again. Since this happened on the Soviet Union and a television camera was installed on board the flight line was able to witness the maneuvers live.

Landing

Cosmos 186 landed on October 31 at 08:20 UT. However, there were (as in Soyuz 1) problems with the position control, whereby very high delays have occurred ( 7-8 g, instead of 3 to 4 g ).

The braking rockets from Cosmos 188 were detonated on November 1 at 07:03 UT. Also in this re-entry position control was inaccurate, causing the spacecraft strongly deviated from the course. Compared 7:30 cosmos was blown up 188 over Siberia. Nevertheless, the Soviet media announced that they had recovered the landing capsule.

Impact on the Soyuz program

The mission gave proof that it is possible, space ships fully automatic closer together and to couple. In this way it would in future also feasible to bring large payloads into smaller parts into orbit and assembled only in Earth orbit. This could be dispensed with large rockets. In this double mission, however, also appeared three major problems: the increased fuel consumption, incomplete coupling and the poor alignment prior to reentry.

The leadership of the Soviet space planning then another unmanned dual launch in April 1968 with Kosmos 212 and 213 before you wanted to venture on a manned flight of a Sojusraumschiffs in May or June.

The American Apollo program was still broken in January 1967 after the disaster of Apollo 1.

More flight data

Cosmos 186

  • Mass: 6530 kg
  • Perigee: 179 km
  • Apogee: 223 km
  • Inclination: 51.6 °
  • Erdumlaufzeit: 88.6 min
  • Type the launcher: Soyuz ( GREY index 11A511 )
  • Type the spaceship: Soyuz 7K- OK ( A) ( GREY index 11F615 )
  • Serial number: 6
  • International Astronomical Name: 1967 - 105A

Cosmos 188

  • Mass: 6530 kg
  • Perigee: 180 km
  • Apogee: 247 km
  • Inclination: 51.7 °
  • Erdumlaufzeit: 88.7 min
  • Type the launcher: Soyuz ( GREY index 11A511 )
  • Type the spaceship: Soyuz 7K- OK ( P) ( GREY index 11F615 )
  • Serial number: 5
  • International Astronomical Name: 1967 - 107A
Soyuz 2A Orbital inclination International Designator Kosmos 133 Kosmos 140 Kosmos 238 Kosmos 496 Kosmos 573 Kosmos 613 Kosmos 638 Kosmos 656 Kosmos 670 Kosmos 672 Kosmos 772 Kosmos 869 Kosmos 1001 Kosmos 1074 Soyuz 3 Soyuz 4 Soyuz 5 Soyuz 6 Soyuz 8 Soyuz 9 Soyuz 10 Soyuz 11 Soyuz 12 Soyuz 13 Soyuz 14 Soyuz 15 Soyuz 16 Soyuz 17 Soyuz 7K-T No.39 Soyuz 18 Soyuz 20 Soyuz 21 Soyuz 22 Soyuz 23 Soyuz 24 Soyuz 25 Soyuz 26 Soyuz 32 Soyuz 33 Soyuz 34 Soyuz 35 Soyuz T-1 Soyuz T-5 Soyuz T-7 Soyuz T-8 Soyuz 7K-ST No. 16L Soyuz T-10 Soyuz T-11 Soyuz T-12 Soyuz T-13 Soyuz T-14 Soyuz TM-1 Soyuz TM-2 Soyuz TM-3 Soyuz TM-4 Soyuz TM-5 Soyuz TM-6 Soyuz TM-7 Soyuz TM-8 Soyuz TM-9 Soyuz TM-10 Soyuz TM-11 Soyuz TM-12 Soyuz TM-14 Soyuz TM-15 Soyuz TM-16 Soyuz TM-17 Soyuz TM-18 Soyuz TM-19 Soyuz TM-20 Soyuz TM-21 Soyuz TM-22 Soyuz TM-23 Soyuz TM-24 Soyuz TM-25 Soyuz TM-26 Soyuz TM-27 Soyuz TM-28 Soyuz TM-29 Soyuz TM-30 Soyuz TM-31 Soyuz TM-32 Soyuz TM-33 Soyuz TM-34 Soyuz TMA-1 Soyuz TMA-2 Soyuz TMA-3 Soyuz TMA-4 Soyuz TMA-5 Soyuz TMA-6 Soyuz TMA-7 Soyuz TMA-8 Soyuz TMA-9 Soyuz TMA-10 Soyuz TMA-11 Soyuz TMA-12 Soyuz TMA-13 Soyuz TMA-14 Soyuz TMA-15 Soyuz TMA-16 Soyuz TMA-17 Soyuz TMA-18 Soyuz TMA-19 Soyuz TMA-01M Soyuz TMA-20 Soyuz TMA-21 Soyuz TMA-02M Soyuz TMA-22 Soyuz TMA-03M Soyuz TMA-04M Soyuz TMA-05M Soyuz TMA-06M Soyuz TMA-07M Soyuz TMA-08M Soyuz TMA-09M Soyuz TMA-10M Soyuz TMA-11M Soyuz TMA-12M Soyuz TMA-13M Soyuz TMA-14M Soyuz TMA-15M Soyuz TMA-16M Soyuz TMA-17M Soyuz TMA-18M Soyuz TMA-19M
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