Cosmos 1445

Launch data: Designation  13883 / 83017A Launch date  15 Mar 1983 - 22:30 UT Launch site  KY Launch vehicle  Cosmos-3M-RB5 Mission  Space plane recovery test Satellite type  BOR-4 (#3, 403) Earth orbit on: Perigee / Apogee  177 x 223 km Inclination  50.6° Period   min

Mission details:

• On 15 March 1983 Cosmos-1445 was launched on a repeat mission, coming down 556 km south of the Cocos Islands. On station in the Indian Ocean apart from Navy vessels of the Black Sea fleet were the tracking ships Cosmonaut Vladislav Volkov and Cosmonaut Pavel Belyayev as well as the Chumikan. Two Il-18RT tracking aircraft were in the skies over Afghanistan to monitor the final part of the re-entry. Coming in the middle of the Soviet-Afghan war, their missions were not without risk and they were escorted by a whole squadron of Soviet fighter jets. Cosmos-I445 was again retrieved by the Yamal. Better prepared than during the Cosmos-1374 mission, the Australians again photographed the recovery operation from a P-3C Orion patrol aircraft as well as from a helicopter deployed from the hydrographic/oceanographic ship HMAS Moresby. Some of the pictures were released to the public by the Australian Ministry of Defence in April 1983
  
  
  
  
• Participants in the recovery operation later recalled that the Australian aircraft flew so low that its slipstream nearly knocked them off their feet. Australian vessels monitoring the recovery operation reportedly came so close that the Soviet crew members could use their binoculars to catch a glimpse of the movies shown on giant screens on the upper decks in the evening.
• Confident enough that they could bring back the BORs with sufficient precision, the Russians decided to land the next two BORs in the Black Sea just west of Simferopol.