Here is some more info on Cosmos 1766 courtesy of Bart Hendrickx. --- On Fri, 27 Dec 96 18:37:04 EST Bart Hendrickx <bhen@innet.be> wrote: >On 26 December Jeff Hunt wrote : >> Would anyone (at FPSpace) have any background info on this sat; cat.no. >>16881, int.designation 86-055A. Resources such as the Sat Encylopedia, >>SpaceWarn,etc. don't help. USSPACECOM lists it as having a radar cross >>section of 24.4m2. >Cosmos 1766 was one of the Okean series of satellites developed by the >Yuzhnoe design bureau in the Ukraine to study the ocean with a side-looking >radar. They were originally launched under the veil of the "Cosmos" >programme, were then officially announced as Okean and the latest >satellite in the series was called "Sich" (a Ukrainian word). The Okean-O >satellites weigh 1950 kg and contain 505 kg of scientific equipment. >This is a summary of launches, taken from "Novosti Kosmonavtiki" 18/1995 >: > >official name launch date production name worked until > >Cosmos-1076 12 Feb 1979 Okean-E Nr. 1 31 Mar 1980 >Cosmos-1151 23 Jan 1980 Okean-E Nr. 2 13 Oct 1981 >Cosmos-1500 28 Sep 1983 Okean-OE Nr. 1 16 Jul 1986 >Cosmos-1602 28 Sep 1984 Okean-OE Nr. 2 5 Dec 1986 >Cosmos-1766 28 Jul 1986 Okean-O1 Nr. 1 24 Oct 1988 >Cosmos-1869 16 Jul 1987 Okean-O1 Nr. 2 3 May 1989 >Okean 5 Jul 1988 Okean-O1 Nr. 3 14 Jun 1990 >launch failure 9 Jun 1989 Okean-O1 Nr. 4 >Okean 28 Feb 1990 Okean-O1 Nr. 5 18Jul 1991 >Okean 4 Jun 1991 Okean-O1 Nr. 6 4 Jan 1994 >Okean-O1 11 Oct 1994 Okean-O1 Nr. 7 operational ? >Sich-1 31 Aug 1995 Okean-O1 Nr. 8 operational ? > >The first two satellites were experimental and carried no side-looking >radar. I have no information on the current status of Okean-O1 Nr. 7 >and 8. They were launched with an expected lifetime of six months. >Sich-1 was the last satellite in the Okean-O1 series. Yuzhnoe is working >on an uprated version now called Okean-U. Weighing in at 6360 kg, it is > to be placed into a 98=B0 sun-synchronous orbit by the Zenit-2 booster. >At the time of the Sich-1 launch the first launch was expected "no earlier > than mid-1996", but this clearly did not materialize. > >For more info on Okean (plus colour picture), check out an article by >Brian Harvey in <Spaceflight> February 1989, pp. 62-63. > >Bart Hendrickx -----------------End of Original Message-----------------