science

Kosmos 140

Kosmos 140 is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kosmos 140 rather than just read about it. In short: Kosmos 140 (Russian: Космос 140 meaning Cosmos 140), Soyuz 7K-OK No.3, was an uncrewed flight of the Soyuz spacecraft. It was the third attempted test flight of the Soyuz 7K-OK model, after orbital (Kosmos 133) and launch (Soyuz 11A511) failures of the first two Soyuz spacecraft.

Key takeaways

Kosmos 140 belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Kosmos 140 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Kosmos 140 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Kosmos 140 (Russian: Космос 140 meaning Cosmos 140), Soyuz 7K-OK No.3, was an uncrewed flight of the Soyuz spacecraft. It was the third attempted test flight of the Soyuz 7K-OK model, after orbital (Kosmos 133) and launch (Soyuz 11A511) failures of the first two Soyuz spacecraft.

History The follow-up to Kosmos 133 (Soyuz 7K-OK No.2), 28 November 1966, was planned for 14 December 1966 (Soyuz 7K-OK No.1) but ended disastrously. At liftoff, the Blok A core stage of the 11A57 booster ignited, but not the strap-ons. A shutdown command was immediately sent and pad crews began to move the service towers back in place and drain the propellants. This task was completed for the core stage and strap-ons, and then about 27 minutes after the attempted launch, the launch escape system (LES) suddenly fired. Its exhaust caused the Blok I third stage propellant tanks to overheat and explode, killing one person on the ground and damaging the Soyuz and core stage/strap-ons beyond repair. LC-31 was also badly damaged and took seven months of repair work in the frigid Kazakhstan winter to be restored to use. The reason for the LES firing was thought to be either a timer being activated due to the Earth's rotation affecting the gyroscope package in the launch vehicle or perhaps one of the service towers bumping it.

Launch In February 1967, the backup booster and spacecraft were set up at LC-1 and the planned mission could be carried out. Kosmos 140 was operated in a low Earth orbit, on 7 February 1967, it had a perigee of 165 km (103 mi), an apogee of 218 km (135 mi), an inclination of 51.7°, and an orbital period of 88.5 minutes.

Return The spacecraft suffered attitude control problems and excessive fuel consumption in orbit, but remained controllable. An attempted maneuver on the 22nd orbit still showed problems with the control system. It malfunctioned yet again during retrofire, leading to a steeper than planned ballistic reentry and a 30 centimetres (12 in) hole being burned in the heat shield. Although the event would have been lethal to any human occupants, the capsule's recovery systems operated and the capsule crashed through the ice of the frozen Aral Sea, hundreds of kilometers short of its landing zone. The spacecraft finally sank in 10 metres of water and had to be retrieved by divers. The test performance was nonetheless deemed "good enough"; the crewed docking missions of Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 2 was approved for the next flight.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kosmos 140

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kosmos 140 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kosmos 140 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kosmos 140 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kosmos 140

In research: Kosmos 140 appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Kosmos 140 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Kosmos 140 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1967 in the Soviet Union, Kosmos satellites, Soviet spacecraft stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kosmos 140 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Kosmos 140 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kosmos 140 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Kosmos 140 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kosmos 140 in simple terms?

Why does Kosmos 140 matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kosmos 140?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kosmos 140.