Kosmos 133, also known as Cosmos 133, was a Soyuz program test satellite. The spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a Vostok rocket. It was the first test flight of the Soyuz 7K-OK Earth orbit configuration.
The mission was designed to be an “all up” test, meaning that a second satellite was scheduled to be launched the following day. The satellites were to automatically dock. The attitude control system onboard Cosmos 133 malfunctioned and it quickly consumed its orientation fuel, leaving it spinning at 2 rpm. The ground crew worked tirelessly to right the spacecraft and made five attempts to ignite retrofire rockets. Finally, the craft began to return to Earth. An inaccurate reentry burn put it on a trajectory to crash in China, so the self-destruct command was given. The satellite exploded November 30, 1966 at 10:21 GMT.
While missions that end like this may seem to be failures, many lessons were learned and applied to future missions. If not for failures like these, manned flight may have seen many more casualties.
For more information on Cosmos-133, check out these articles:
Wikipedia: Kosmos 133
RussianSpaceWeb.com
Additionally, check out these interesting articles:
Soviet Space Program
First Human in Space
We’ve also recorded an entire episode of Astronomy Cast all about Space Capsules. Listen here, Episode 124: Space Capsules, Part 1: Vostok, Mercury and Gemini.
Source: NASA
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