Sputnik 6 - KS 3

Launch data:

Spacecraft data:

End of life

Mission details

• It was a test flight of the Vostok spacecraft, carrying two dogs; Pcholka and Mushka ("little bee" and "little fly"; affectionate diminutives of "pchela" and "mukha", respectively), as well as a television camera and scientific instruments.
• Korabl-Sputnik 3 was launched at 07:30:04 UTC on 1 December 1960, atop a Vostok-L carrier rocket flying from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. It was successfully placed into low Earth orbit.
• Dogs Pchyolka (Little Bee) and Mushka (Little Dot) were carried in this 4,6t craft. The orbit used was lower than the previous missions and Korabl 3 introduced a new solar orientation system?
• The flight lasted one day, after which the spacecraft was deorbited on orbit 17 ahead of its planned recovery.
  The deorbit burn began at 07:15 UTC on 02 December, however the engine did not cut off as planned at the end of the burn, and instead the spacecraft burned to depletion. The craft flew 1 1/2 more orbits before being blown up by an automatic destruct system which did not detect re-entry at the correct time. This resulted in it reentering the atmosphere at a steep angle, and disintegrating. Both Pchyolka and Mushka were killed in the resulting disintegration.
• The only other dog to die in a Soviet space mission was Laika, who was never intended to survive her Sputnik 2 flight.

Astrophilately covers:

Launch cancel Baikonur (false cansel) - Credit: #402

Launch & landing cancel Minsk