|
|
|
  
|
||||||||
Landing of Kosmos-186 The Soyuz 7K-OK No. 6 spacecraft completed its mission on Oct. 31, 1967.
Vehicle No. 6 lands in ballistic mode After the successful undocking, the Soyuz engineers faced another critical phase of the mission that had given them so much grief in the recent past -- the reentry and landing. With its propellant cache nearly depleted, Vehicle No. 6 (Kosmos-186), was set for reentry first on Oct. 31, 1967. Yet again, the 45K optical sensor of the celestial and sun-orientation system demonstrated poor performance, probably due to excessive interference from sunlight. Because the sensor could not lock in on a necessary navigation star, it was impossible to orient the ship accurately enough to provide aerodynamic lift during the reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. As a result, the descent module made a ballistic reentry which, fortunately, still concluded with a soft landing.
|
|
|||||||
|
