Sputnik 40

Launch data: Designation 24958 / 97058C Launch date 05 Oct 1997 - 15:09 UT Launch site B, LC1 / Mir station Launch vehicle Soyuz-U Mission Amateur communication Earth orbit on 3 Nov 1997 (.76) : Earth orbit on Nov 03, 1997: Perigee/Apogee 385 / 389 km Inclination 51.67° Period 92.30 min

mission details:

• This nano-satellite was a small replica (1/3 model) of the Sputnik 1 satellite. The model was built by high school students in the republic of Kabardin-Balakarsk in the Russian Federation, in the Caucasus near Chechnya. The radio transmitter payload was built by students on Reunion island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean.
  
• Sputnik 40 (also called Sputnik 1 model) was launched aboard Progress-M 36 and deployed in orbit (from the MIR space station) on November 3, 1997 at 04:05 UT; during an EVA by the resident Russian Cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyov and Pavel Vinogradov, on board Mir.
• The satellite carries a low-power (100 to 200 mW) 2-meter VHF-FM beacon transmitter operating on 145.820 MHz that emits a pulsating tone with duty cycle of 5, with 1.3kHz frequency as a function of the internal temperature of the spacecraft, similar to the original Sputnik. The antenna polarisation is circular, however no satellite attitude control exists to control the polarity sense. Its lifetime in orbit is expected to be between one and two months as it employs non-recharchable batteries. Orbital lifetime is expected to be about 18 months. The SSHP author still observed the satellite near the 20th November. The spacecraft was reported to be spinning rapidly (8-13rpm), and finally stopped transmitting on the 29th December.
• A second model, Sputnik 40-2 (RS 17b), was never deployed from Mir and decayed with the space station.