Kosmos 144

rdf:langString Kosmos 144

rdf:langString Kosmos 144

rdf:langString Kosmos 144

rdf:langString gee

rdf:langString Weather

rdf:langString Meteor

rdf:langString Kosmos 144 (Russian: Космос 144 meaning Cosmos 144), was launched on 28 February 1967, Meteor No.6L, and was one of eleven weather satellites launched by the Soviet Union between 1964 and 1969. Kosmos 144 was the second announced Russian meteorological satellite and the first interim operational weather satellite in the experimental Kosmos satellite 'Meteor' system. It was also the first launch of the semi-operational weather satellite from the Plesetsk site into a near-polar, near-circular orbit. Unlike U.S. weather satellites, however, the orbit was prograde (not sun-synchronous) because, as a result of geographic limitations, a retrograde orbit was not possible. Kosmos 144 was orbited to test, in a semi-operational mode, meteorological instruments designed for obtaining images of cloud cover, snow cover, and ice fields on the day and night sides of the Earth and for measuring fluxes of outgoing radiation reflected and radiated by the Earth-atmosphere system. The launch of the Kosmos 144 satellite occurred after the success of the Kosmos 122 another meteorological satellite that was launched on 25 June 1966. These satellites were used until 1969 when they were replaced with an upgraded model officially called Meteor 1. The Kosmos 144 differed from the Kosmos 122 mission from Baikonur Cosmodrome to Plesetsk Cosmodrome that was used to get the satellite at the inclination that the satellite was left. The Kosmos 144 was also soon joined by the Kosmos 156, on 27 April 1967, which due to the orbit at which the satellites were positioned made it to where one of the satellites would pass over every six hours.