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Mission record

Cosmos 359

Also known as Cosmos359, Kosmos 359

U.S.S.R · Launched

Explore trajectory

Failed · Failure

An attempted Soviet Venus flight, which NSSDCA describes as perhaps a lander similar to the Venera 7 mission launched five days earlier on 17 August. That page prints the day without a year; Venera 7's own launch/orbital information page dates the launch 1970-08-17T05:38:22Z. The launcher successfully brought the spacecraft to Earth orbit and the payload separated from the Tyazheliy Sputnik, but the escape stage failed during firing, putting the payload into a slightly more elliptical geocentric orbit, and the mission was designated Cosmos 359. Its orbit decayed later the same year.

Destinations
Launch vehicle
Modified SS-6 (Sapwood) with 2nd Generation Upper Stage + Escape Stage
Launch site
Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), U.S.S.R
Countries
Soviet Union
Mission types
Lander

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched into a 210 x 910 km Earth orbit

    The launch/orbital information page prints 1970-08-22T05:06:09Z and a 210 x 910 km Earth orbit at 51.500 degrees inclination. The master catalog names the launcher in its own text as an SL-6/A-2-e while both pages print Modified SS-6 (Sapwood) with 2nd Generation Upper Stage + Escape Stage under Launch Vehicle. Source review: NSSDCA gives launch 05:06:09 UTC on August 22; the NASA history gives 05:06:08 UT. Preserve the existing clock with this one-second disagreement. The orbit metadata's midnight start is not a measured epoch; the actual ignition time remains unknown.

    Earth

  2. Mission end

    NSSDCA decay date 1970-11-06

    The launch/orbital information page prints 1970-11-06 under the heading Decay Date. The master catalog gives no decay date of its own.

    Earth

  3. Milestone

    Escape stage fails during firing

    The master catalog records that the launcher successfully brought the spacecraft to Earth orbit and the spacecraft payload was separated from the Tyazheliy Sputnik, but the escape stage failed during firing, putting the payload into a slightly more elliptical geocentric orbit. Carried without a timestamp because the page dates neither the firing nor the designation.

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Cosmos 359 · Spacecraft

    Destinations: Venus

    • Kosmos-359 SA · Other

Trajectory record

Time-dependent navigation trajectory

Source states place the model at the selected time. Reconstructed flight, estimates, predictions and historical mission plans are identified by interval; gaps remain visible.

J2000 · Sun-centered display · positions interpolated between source states

Coverage: November 5, 1970 to November 5, 1970

Source records and sampling assumptions are retained with the repository data. Model attitude and surface appearance are illustrative.

  • Cosmos 359: bounded derived 15-minute final Earth-orbit TLE arc; decay time remains day-only · November 5, 1970 to November 5, 1970

Provenance

Sources

Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.

Data verified through October 7, 2026