PUBLICITY ON FAILURE OF SOVIET SPACE PROBES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01676R003000070011-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 20, 2006
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: September 5, 1962
• Content Type: MF

 Release 2006/07120 C1A-RDP80B01676R003000070011-2
apex to public discvasioz6
highly stasitive information let duet th a guard
access to
truth. I am fen rfal that this Will occur in this last ce
entire box of tricks will be ssl-jsct.to the vooot careful and pai ag
scrutiny by plc is rmAtion Via.
all concerned will
. In order t1+ t the intelligence cols ty be
relieved of the probing oatlIned above.
clear that this typ. of information to a *or
of the N AD SPADAT system.
Attachment
MSC: be c
Orig & 1 - Handcarried to addressee via Mr. Kaysen
I - DD/R w/cy attachment
I - AD/SI w/cy attachment
I - DDCI wlcy attachment
1 , ER via Executive Director w/cy attachment
O/DCI (Knoche)- 40.
 proved For Release 2006/07/20: CIA-RDP80BO 1676R00300007001.1-2
COMMENTS ON SOVIET ATTEMPTS TO SEND SPACECRAFT
TO MARS AND VENUS
The Soviet Union has paireued a vigorous but unsuccessful
program to send instrumented space probes to the planets.
Thus lar, two attempts have been made to send spacecraft to
Mars, and four to Venus. Of these six attempts, only one probe
was successfully launched on an interplanetary path, the Venus
only a qualified
success because its radio transmission failed after several days,
long before it reached Venue. Nuns of the five remaining attempts
achieved a successful trajectory because of rocket vehicle mal-
functions of one sort or another.
The same mission-planning philosophy and vehicle combina-
tions were used on each of the Soviet interplanetary series. A
parking orbit technique is consisteritty exploited, whereby the
payload probe and its ejection stage are launched into a low
earth satellite orbit, as in the US Mariner program. After one
passage around the earth, the fourth or ejection stage is fired
over Africa or the Soviet Union. U successful, this sends the
instrumented probe on a ballistic Voth to the its. Had the
launching bean successful in each of the six cases listed below,
the probe would have arrived at Venus or Mars with too high a
 proved For Release 2006/07/20: CIA-R0P80B01676R003000070011-2
velocity to have been orbited arc *d either planet. Optimum
conditions were chosen for each launching attempted thus far
~, c : /, ` ' Y lI:tG /sac' ( et
so as toA simplify the task of *dmv guidance erA peso. -
AMMb"bu
1. 10 October 1960: An unannounced attempt to send a
probe to Mars failed before a parking orbit was achieved.
Had this probe been successful, it would have reached Marv in
about 230 days.
2. 14 October 1960: A second attempt to send a probe to
Mars, using virtually the same trajectory, also failed before
a parking orbit was achieved.
3. 4 February 1961: The first attempt to send a space-
craft to Venus was successfully placed in its earth parking
orbit, but could not be ejected into its planned Venus trajectory.
s a successful earth
satellite Sputnik VII and claimed for it a new weight in orbit
record of 14, 300 lbs. Had this probe been successfully ejected,
it would have taken about 105 days to reach Venus.
4. 12 February 1961: A partially successful attempt to
sand a 1, 400-lb. spacecraft to Venus was made on this date.
All vehicle stages functioned normally, and the probe was
 pproved For Release 2006/07/20: CIA-RDP80BO1676R003000070011-2
correctly placed on its interplanetary path. The Soviet Union
correctly announced that this was the first time that a spacecraft
was successfully ejected outward from orbit. The probe took 97
days to reach the vicinity of Venus. The Soviets
- eye ~r
failure in the power supply or radio transmitter, and the probe
was last heard from at a distance of 4. 5 million miles from the
earth.
5. 25 August 1962: A third attempt to send a probe to Venus
was made on this date. The payload was successfully placed into
its satellite parking orbit, but apparently could not be ejected.
I-lad this shot been successful, the probe would have arrived at
Venus on about 7 December 1962, ahead of the US Mariner II. It
appears that the normal flight time of 112 days for this date was
intentionally shortened to 104 days by sacrificing spacecraft weight.
This launching attempt has not yet been announced by the Soviet
Union.
6. 1 September 1962: The fourth attempt to reach Venus
was also successfully placed into a satellite parking orbit, but could
not be ejected. The Soviet Union has not yet announced this attempt
nor the presence of the unused components in orbit.
?3-
 Approved For Release 2006/07/20: CIA-RDP80BO1676R003000070011-2
Approved For Release 2006/07/20: CIA-RDP80BO1676R003000070011-2