Kosmos 690

Kosmos 690

Names	Bion 2 Biocosmos 2
Mission type	Bioscience
Operator	Institute of Biomedical Problems
COSPAR ID	1974-080A
SATCAT no.	7478 [1]
Mission duration	22 days, 10 hours and 48 minutes
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type	Bion
Bus	Zenit 12KS
Manufacturer	TsSKB Progress
Launch mass	5,500 kg (12,100 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date	20 October 1974, 17:59:59 UTC[2]
Rocket	Soyuz-U
Launch site	Plesetsk 43/4
Contractor	TsSKB
End of mission
Disposal	Recovered
Landing date	12 November 1974, 04:48:00 UTC
Landing site	Steppes of Kazakhstan, USSR
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric[3]
Regime	Low Earth orbit
Perigee altitude	223 km (139 mi)
Apogee altitude	389 km (242 mi)
Inclination	62.80°
Period	90.40 minutes
Bion programme ← Bion 1 Bion 3 →   Kosmos (satellites) ← Kosmos 689 Kosmos 691 →

Kosmos 690 or Bion 2(in Russian: Бион 2, Космос 690), was a Bion satellite launched by the Soviet Union in late 1974.

Launch

Kosmos 690 was launched on 22 October 1974, at 17:59:59 UTC from Plesetsk Cosmodrome with a Soyuz-U launch vehicle. It was placed in low Earth orbit, with perigee of 223 km (139 mi), apogee of 389 km (242 mi) and orbital inclination of 62.80°, and orbital period of 98.40 minutes.^[3]

Spacecraft

The spacecraft was based on the Zenit spy satellite with emphasis on studying the problems of radiation effects on human beings.

It carried albino rats for biomedical research. Scientists from Czechoslovakia, Romania and Soviet Union subjected the rats to daily radiation doses from a gamma source by ground command. When they were recovered 21 days later, many rats had developed lung problems and their blood and bone marrow had changed more than those of control specimens. It had an on-orbit dry mass of 5,500 kg (12,100 lb).^[4][5]

An instrument module in the form of 2 connected truncated cones, weighing 2,400 kg (5,300 lb), 2.43 m (8 ft 0 in) in diameter and 2.25 m (7 ft 5 in) in length, carries in most of the auxiliary instrumentation in the hermetized part. Outwardly, ball valves with compressed nitrogen are attached to the gas nozzles of the stabilizer system. At the rear, the TDU-1 braking engine is located at a stroke of 15.83 kN and a maximum operating time of 45 seconds. Hypergolic KPL delivers a turbo pump to the combustion chamber. An auxiliary container containing chemical batteries and additional experiments, cylindrical with a diameter of 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) and a height of 0.90 m (2 ft 11 in) is placed above the return module and dumped approximately a day before the landing.

Mission

After 21 days, Kosmos 690 returned to Earth and landing in Kazakhstan on 12 November 1974. The return module, weighing 3,100 kg (6,800 lb) and 2.3 m (7 ft 7 in) in diameter, was covered with an ablative thermal shield 3 to 18 cm thick.^[5]

See also

• 1974 in spaceflight
• Kosmos (satellite)

References

Bibliography

• Kozlov, D. I. (1996), Mashnostroenie, ed.; Konstruirovanie avtomaticheskikh kosmicheskikh apparatov, Moscow, ISBN
• Melnik, T. G. (1997), Nauka, ed.; Voenno-Kosmicheskiy Sili, Moscow. ISBN
• "Bion' nuzhen lyudyam", Novosti Kosmonavtiki (6): 35, 1996

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