Letter Announcing the Existence of Plesetsk
This is Geoff Perry's letter to Flight International announcing that Cosmos 112 had been launched from somewhere other than Tyuratam (as we knew it then). Pinpointing the actual location and its name were still to come.
Interestingly, the letter reveals something else that is only obvious in hindsight.
It begins "Radio signals from Cosmos 112 were received in Kettering at the end of the second and third revolutions on March 17 and again on the following two days". In a piece of writing typical of Geoff, what he purposefully did not say is as significant as what he did!
In 1966, March 17 was a wednesday so the description covers as far as the friday, after which school was out for the weekend. On returning to school on monday, the sunday-launched Cosmos 113 would have been occupying 19.995 MHz with nothing to be heard from Cosmos 112 - hence Geoff's precisely-worded sentence.
Cosmos 112 was probably the first time that a satellite moved to 19.990 MHz to allow the newcomer to have access to the main frequency though it became clear with later launches that it was the norm. It's just that the transmissions on the alternate frequency were not detected on that occasion but Geoff's words hold the clue that points to it having happened.
|
