Cosmos 140

Cosmos 140 was a probable Soyuz programme precursor. It was the third attempted flight of the Soyuz 7K-OK model. The spacecraft experienced attitude control and excessive fuel consumption in orbit, but remained controllable. An attempted maneuver on the 22nd revolution still showed problems with the control system. It malfunctioned yet again during retrofire, leading to a steeper than planned reentry and a 300 mm hole being burned in the heat shield. Although such an event would be lethal to any human occupants, the capsules recovery systems operated and the capsule crashed through the ice of the frozen Aral Sea, hundreds of kilometers short of its landing zone. The spacecraft finally sank in 10 meters of water and had to be retrieved by divers. However, the mission was "good enough" for the next mission set to be a manned two-craft docking and crew transfer space spectacular.

Mission parameters

*Spacecraft: Soyuz 7K-OK
*Mass: 6450 kg
*Crew: None
*Launched: February 7, 1967 at 03:21:00 UTC
*Landed: February 8, 1967
*Perigee: 165 km
*Apogee: 218 km
*Inclination: 51.7°
*Period: 88.5 minutes
*NSSDC ID: 1967-009A

References

[http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1967-009A Text comes from NASA NSSDC Master Catalog]