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Mission record

Sputnik 19

Also known as Alpha Pi 1, Sputnik 23 (USNSC), Sputnik19

U.S.S.R · Launched

Explore trajectory

Failed · Failure

A Venera-type spacecraft intended to make a landing on Venus. The SL-6/A-2-e launcher put it into Earth orbit on 25 August 1962, but the escape stage failed: one of the four small solid-fuel rockets of the ullage maneuver did not fire, leaving the spacecraft pointed in the wrong direction, and when the block L firing occurred the spacecraft began to tumble violently and cut out from lack of fuel after 45 seconds. It remained in geocentric orbit for three days until the orbit decayed on 28 August and it reentered.

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 Earth orbit, where the escape stage failed

    NSSDCA's launch/orbital information page gives the launch date and time as 1962-08-25T02:52:00Z, recorded at minute precision because the page prints a whole minute with zero seconds, and an Earth orbit with a periapsis of 168.00 km, an apoapsis of 221.00 km, a period of 88.70 minutes and an inclination of 64.900°. The two catalogues disagree on which object carries the satellite number and it is recorded rather than resolved: the master catalog lists 00372 among this spacecraft's alternate names, while GCAT gives 00372 to the Molniya 8K78 Blok-I stage as S00372, piece 1962 A PI 2, and gives the spacecraft S00371. Source review: NSSDCA gives launch 02:52 UTC on August 25; the NASA history gives 02:56:06 UT. Preserve the existing minute precision rather than combining these clocks. NSSDCA gives 2.6 square metres of solar arrays; the history gives 2.5. Design and launch-unit dimensions are not interchangeable.

    Earth

  2. Mission end

    Orbit decayed after three days

    The master catalog records that the spacecraft remained in geocentric orbit for three days until the orbit decayed on 28 August and Sputnik 19 reentered the Earth's atmosphere; the launch/orbital information page gives a decay date of 1962-08-28 and ends the Earth-orbit epoch at 1962-08-28 00:00:00.

    Earth

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Sputnik 19 · Spacecraft

    Destinations: Venus

    • 2MV-1 No. 1 SA · Other

Trajectory record

Trajectory dataset not yet available

Known dates and encounters do not uniquely determine a flight path. This mission’s sourced timeline is available above; no verified trajectory is currently published here.

What is needed to reconstruct this path?
  • A frame-qualified position and vector velocity at an epoch, or equivalent complete orbital elements.
  • Separate state histories and release epochs for the listed vehicles; a parent mission trajectory cannot be assigned to every component.
  • Finer event-time constraints where required by an orbital reconstruction; the stored day/month/year precision is retained.
  • The actual failed-flight state history. Intended destinations are not evidence that the spacecraft reached them.

Provenance

Sources

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

Data verified through September 14, 2026