SDA Movers

A starboard view of the Soviet civilian space research ship Kosmonaut Yuri Gargarin underway (8/11/1989).

Class overview

Name:
Sofiya (Modified) (Soviet Project 1909)

Builders:
Baltic, Leningrad

Operators:
Academy of Sciences

Completed:
1

General characteristics Kosmonaut Yuri Gargarin

Type:
SESS

Tonnage:
31,300 DWT

Displacement:
53,500 tons standard

Length:
760 ft (230 m)

Beam:
102 ft (31 m)

Draft:
33 ft (10 m)

Propulsion:
2 steam turbines (Kirov) with electric drive; 19,000 shp, 1 shaft

Speed:
17.7 knots (33 km/h)

Range:
24,000 nmi (44,448 km) at 17.7 knots (33 km/h)

Complement:
approx. 160 + 180 scientist-technicians

Sensors and
processing systems:
1 Don-Kay and 1 Okean (Navigation);
Tracking and communications equipment includes Quad Ring, Ship Bowl, and Ship Globe. Two pairs of Vee Tube/Cone HF antennas.

Aircraft carried:
none

Aviation facilities:
none

The Kosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (Russian: Космона́вт Ю́рий Гага́рин) was a Soviet space control-monitoring and surveillance ship that was devoted to detecting and receiving satellite communications. Named after Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, she was completed in December 1971 to support the Soviet space program. The ship also conducted upper atmosphere and outer space research.

It had very distinguishable looks due to two extremely large and two smaller antenna dishes placed on top of the hull.

In Soviet times, the Kosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the world’s largest communications ship and was the flagship of a fleet of communications ships.

In 1975, the ship was a part of the Soviet-American Apollo-Soyuz joint test program.

The communications ships belonged to the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The maritime part fell under the responsibility of the Baltic- and Black sea shipping. The ships had home ports in the Ukraine (the Kosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and the Akademik Sergei Korolev) so, after the fall of the Soviet Union the ships were transferred to Ukraine – ending their role in spaceflight.

She was sold for scrap shortly after the break-up of the Soviet Union along with other surveillance ships Korolyov.

Contents

• 1 See also
• 2 References
• 3 See also
• 4 External links

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See also

• Akademik Sergei Korolev, another Soviet surveillance ship.

References

1. ^ a b Norman Polmar, Guide to the Soviet Navy, Fourth Edition (1986), United States Naval Institute, Annapolis Maryland, ISBN 0-87021-240-0
2. ^ Tracking sites and ships, Komsmonavtka Website, Retrieved 6/13/2008
3. ^ SP-4209 The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, (U.S.) NASA, Online Article

See also

• Yuri Gagarin
• List of ships of Russia by project number

External links

• A. Karpenko, ABM and Space Defense, Nevsky Bastion, No. 4, 1999, pp. 2-47, Federation of American Scientists (Online)

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Categories: Soviet Union stubs | Ukraine stubs | Space stubs | Spaceflight | Ships of the Soviet Navy | Soviet space program