Soviet ship Kosmonavt Yuriy Gagarin
Kosmonavt Yuriy Gagarin in 1987 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Soviet Union | |
| Name | Kosmonavt Yuriy Gagarin |
| Operator | 1971–1992: Soviet Academy of Sciences |
| Port of registry | Odesa, Soviet Union |
| Builder | Baltic Shipyard, Leningrad |
| Yard number | 601 |
| Acquired | September 1971 |
| Identification |
|
| Fate | Transferred to Ukraine, 1992 |
| Ukraine | |
| Name |
|
| Port of registry |
|
| Acquired | 1992 |
| Fate | Scrapped in Alang, August 1996 |
| Class overview | |
| Name | Sofiya (Modified) (Soviet Project 1909) |
| Builders | Baltic Shipyard, Leningrad |
| Operators | Academy of Sciences |
| Built | 1971 |
| In service | 1971–1991 |
| Completed | 1 |
| Retired | 1 |
| General characteristics of Kosmonavt Yuriy Gagarin | |
| Type | SESS / Vigilship (Veladora) |
| Tonnage | 31,300 DWT |
| Displacement | 53,500 tons standard |
| Length | 760 ft (230 m) |
| Beam | 102 ft (31 m) |
| Draft | 33 ft (10 m) |
| Propulsion | 2 steam turbines (Kirov) with electric drive; 19,000 shp (14,000 kW), 1 shaft |
| Speed | 17.7 knots (33 km/h) |
| Range | 24,000 nmi (44,448 km) at 17.7 knots (33 km/h) |
| Complement | approx. 160 + 180 scientist-technicians |
| Sensors & processing systems |
|
| Aircraft carried | none |
| Aviation facilities | none |
Kosmonavt Yuriy Gagarin (Russian: «Космона́вт Ю́рий Гага́рин») was a Soviet space control-monitoring ship that was devoted to detecting and receiving satellite communications. Named after cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the ship was completed in December 1971 to support the Soviet space program. The ship also conducted upper atmosphere and outer space research.[1]: 309
It had very distinguishable looks due to two extremely large and two smaller parabolic "dish" antennas placed on top of the hull.
In 1986, Kosmonavt Yuriy Gagarin was the world's largest communications ship and was the flagship of a fleet of communications ships.[1] These ships greatly extended the tracking range when the orbits of cosmonauts and unmanned missions were not over the USSR.[2]
In 1975, the ship was a part of the Soviet-American Apollo–Soyuz joint test program.[3]
The communications ships belonged to the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The maritime part fell under the responsibility of the Baltic and Black Sea shipping. The ships had home ports in Ukraine (Kosmonavt Yuriy Gagarin and the other surveillance ship Akademik Sergei Korolev), so after the fall of the Soviet Union they were transferred to Ukraine – ending their role in spaceflight.
The ship was sold for scrap in Alang, India in August 1996, along with Akademik Sergei Korolev.
See also
- Kosmonavt Vladimir Komarov, another Soviet satellite tracking ship
- List of ships of Russia by project number
References
- ^ a b Norman Polmar, Siegfried Breyer, Guide to the Soviet Navy, Third Edition (1984), United States Naval Institute, Annapolis Maryland, ISBN 0-87021-239-7
- ^ SP-4209 The Partnership: A History of the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, (U.S.) NASA, Online Article
External links
- A. Karpenko, ABM and Space Defense, Nevsky Bastion, No. 4, 1999, pp. 2–47, Federation of American Scientists (Online)