Cosmos 1374

Launch data:

Mission details:

• Analysis of the suborbital mission took longer than expected and necessitated some changes to the vehicle's design.
• In the spring of 1982 seven Soviet ships set sail for the Indian Ocean to support the first orbital mission of a BOR-4 vehicle. These included six Navy ships: a space trackingship (the Chumikan, home port: Petrapavlovsk-Kamchatskiy), three recovery vessels (the Yamal, Apsheron and Baskunchak, home port: Donuzlav in the Crimea), a destroyer (the Chapayev, home port: Vladivostok) and a tanker vesse1 (home port: Vladivostok). The Chapayev was apparently replaced by another ship while already en route to the recovery zone.The seventh ship was the Academy of Sciences space support ship Cosmonaut Georgiy Dobrovolskiy (home port: Leningrad). The task of both the Chumikan and the Dobrovolskiy was to relay data to the control centre near Moscow and the Soviet Navy General Staff. Unlike the Chumikan, the Dobrovolskiy was not only capable of communicating with the home front via Molniya satellites, but also through a geostationary communications satellite.
• By late May the ships had arrived in the recovery zone, where the officers in charge of the recovery operation transferred from the Yamal to the Chumikan. The Soviet TASS news agency sent out a warning to aircraft and ships to clear the areaf or an upcoming rocket launch. In no time Royal Australian AirForce P-3C Orion reconnaissance aircraft deployed from RAAF Base Williams in Point Cook were circling overhead to monitor the vessels' activities. Due to the numerous launch delays the mission was now scheduled for a time of year when weather conditions in the recovery zone were marginal at best. Weather facsimile data originating from Australia and Diego Garcia .and intercepted aboard the ships indicated a tropical storm system was approaching the area, which would have forced the vessels to leave the zone, leading to a launch delay of many months. However, based on intelligence data and the fact that the Orion aircraft continued to circle overhead, the Russians concluded they were being deliberately misinformed and decided to pushahead with the mission. Finally, on 3 June 1982 the first BOR-4 covered with Buran's heatshield materials was successfully placed into orbit. After a single orbit the craft fired its deorbit engine and re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, performing a cross-range manoeuvre that took it about 600 km to the south of its orbital path. The craft gently splashed down some 560 km south of the Cocos Islands,which was about 200 km from its intended landing point. There covery operation was seriously hampered by stormy seas. Battling high waves, recovery forces on board the Yamal needed several attempts to hoist the BOR-4 on deck. During one of those attempts, the vehicle accidentally bumped into the Yamal, causing significant damage to the spacecraft's nose section. Complicating the situation was that toxic hypergolic propellant remaining on the spacecraft had not been burned off after splashdown as planned. This now had to be done with the vehicle suspended under a crane as it was being lifted from the ocean.
  
  
  
  
• Watching the operation from above was a P-3C Orion that managed to snap pictures of the craft's recovery. One of five Soviet Kamov Ka-25 helicopters involved in the operation at one point fired a signal flare, warning the aircraft not to come too close.
• The TASS news agency issued a routine statement saying a satellite called Cosmos-1374 had been launched for "the further study of outer space" , providing no hint of its real mission. It only differed from the standard "Kosmos" launch announcement by adding that "the scientific research envisaged by the programme had been carried out". Within a week US media reports were suggesting the mission had been a test of a small shuttle vehicle, although some argued it had been a test of a prototype space-bome nuclear weapon targeted on US and British naval forces in the Indian Ocean. One report said the flight had been expected about 24 hours later than it was flown, as a result of which US sensing systems were not all aligned in an optimum mode to acquire maximum data from the mission.