Documents / FOIA release
This is National Intelligence Estimate 11-5-61, Soviet Technical Capabilities in Guided Missiles and Space Vehicles. It was submitted by the Director of Central Intelligence and concurred in by the United States Intelligence Board on 25 April 1961. The estimate assesses Soviet surface-to-air, antimissile, air-to-air, air-to-surface, ballistic, ICBM, naval and space programs. It concludes that the first Soviet ICBM unit was probably operational around 1 January 1960. It also says there is no evidence the Soviets are developing offensive space weapons. It contains no UFO material.
“National Academy of Sciences”1 page
Table 2 SOVIET EARTH SATELLITES • SPUTNIK I (195 ALPHA-2) SPUTNIK II (1957 BETA) SPUTNIK III (1958 DELTA-2) SPUTNIK IV (1960 EPSILON) SPUTNIK V (1960 LAMBDA) Weight (lbs.) 184 (includes the 1,120 (including 2,130 (plus about a. Weight of 10,143 structural weight). batteries). 800 lbs. of struc- tural weight, i.e., 2,925 lbs.) pressurized cabin ... 5,513 b. Weight of 2le- orbiting retro-rock- e t , fuel tanks, pumps and associatted structure 1,241 c. Weight of in- strumenta- tion • 3,257 Total • 10,011 Configuration Spherical Conical Conical b Unknown but probably Spare ship config- 10,037. SPUTNIK VI (1960 RHO) very similar to Sputnik V. biting attempt a. Perigee (st ml) 142 140 130 189 Apogee (st ml) 588 1,038 1,167 219 Inclination to Equa- tor (degrees). 64.3 05.4 65 64.89 Remarks Successful orbital Successful orbital Successful orbital Unsuccessful recovery at- flight. flight. flight. tempt. uration unknown. Emergency escape capsule is a cir- cular cylinder with n hemispherical nose. Two dogs were placed in a pressurized con- tainer which was similar in size and s'lape to that used in Sputnik II. Estimated at about 8 f lin:mown 19 Ug. 1960 60.68 193 193 64 Successfully recov- ered. Unknown but prob- ably very similar to Sputnik V. Estimated at about 8 ft. Unknown. 1 Dec. 1960 88.59. 116. 165. 65. Unsuccesful recov- ery attempt. Diameter (ft) of Satel- lites. 1.9 3 b Estimated at about 8 ft.. Length (ft) of Satel- lite. 6.5 b 11.7 " Unknown Date Launched 4 Oct. 1957 Nov. 1057 15 May 1958 15 May 1060 Orbit Period 96.17 minutes 103.7 minutes 106 minutes 91.1 min. prior to deor-
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 101 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.