Mission type | Amateur radio |
---|---|
Operator |
Aéro-Club de France AMSAT Rosaviakosmos |
COSPAR ID | 1997-058C |
SATCAT no. | 24958 |
Mission duration | 1-2 months |
Spacecraft properties | |
Launch mass | 4 kilograms (8.8 lb) [1] |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | 5 October 1997, 15:08:57[2] | UTC
Rocket | Soyuz-U |
Launch site | Baikonur 1/5 |
Deployed from | Mir |
Deployment date | 3 November 1997, 04:05 UTC [3] |
End of mission | |
Last contact | 29 December 1997 |
Decay date | 21 May 1998 |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric |
Regime | Low Earth |
Perigee altitude | 376 kilometres (234 mi) [4] |
Apogee altitude | 382 kilometres (237 mi) [4] |
Inclination | 51.6 degrees [4] |
Epoch | 4 November 1997 |
Sputnik 40 ( Russian: Спутник 40, French: Spoutnik 40), also known as Sputnik Jr, [5] PS-2 [3] and Radio Sputnik 17 (RS-17), [1] was a Franco- Russian amateur radio satellite which was launched in 1997 to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite. [6] A 4-kilogram (8.8 lb) [1] one-third scale model of Sputnik 1, [7] Sputnik 40 was deployed from the Mir space station on 3 November 1997. [3] Built by students, the spacecraft was constructed at the Polytechnic Laboratory of Nalchik in Kabardino-Balkaria, whilst its transmitter was assembled by Jules Reydellet College in Réunion with technical support from AMSAT-France.
Sputnik 40 was launched, along with a backup spacecraft and the X-Mir inspection satellite, aboard Progress M-36 at 15:08 UTC on 5 October 1997. [2] A Soyuz-U carrier rocket placed the spacecraft into orbit, flying from 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan: the same launch pad used by Sputnik 1. [2] Progress M-36 docked to Mir on 8 October, [8] and the satellites were transferred to the space station. At 04:05 UTC on 3 November, [3] during an extra-vehicular activity, Sputnik 40 was deployed by cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev and Pavel Vinogradov. [9]
On 4 November, the day after it was deployed, Sputnik 40 was in a low Earth orbit with a perigee of 376 kilometres (234 mi), an apogee of 382 kilometres (237 mi), an inclination of 51.6 degrees, and a period of 92.13 minutes. [4] The satellite was given the International Designator 1997-058C, and was catalogued by the United States Space Command as 24958. [10] It ceased operations on 29 December 1997 when its batteries expired, [11] [12] and subsequently decayed from orbit on 21 May 1998. [4] The backup satellite remained aboard Mir, and was destroyed when Mir was deorbited on 23 March 2001. [1]