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Kosmos 348

Soviet satellite

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionOct 24, 2024
Entity authorityQ53488
Source-derived summary

Kosmos 348 (Russian: Космос 348 meaning Cosmos 348), also known as DS-U2-GK No.2, was a Soviet satellite which was launched in 1970 as part of the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik programme. It was a 357-kilogram (787 lb) spacecraft, which was built by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, and was used to study the density of air in the upper atmosphere, and investigate aurorae.

Launch

A Kosmos-2I 63SM carrier rocket was used to launch Kosmos 348 into low Earth orbit. The launch took place from Site 133/1 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, with liftoff occurring at 04:59:57 UTC on 13 June 1970. Kosmos 348 was successfully inserted into orbit. On reaching orbit, the satellite was assigned its Kosmos designation and received the International Designator 1970-044A. The North American Aerospace Defense Command assigned it the catalogue number 04413.

Orbit

Kosmos 348 was the second of two DS-U2-GK satellites to be launched. It was operated in an orbit with a perigee of 199 kilometres (124 mi), an apogee of 589 kilometres (366 mi), 71 degrees of inclination and an orbital period of 92.4 minutes. It decayed from orbit within a few weeks of its launch, re-entering the atmosphere on 25 July 1970.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Kosmos 348” as soviet satellite. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Kosmos, Soviet and satellite.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1970—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Kosmos, Soviet and satellite providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Kosmos 348”, the useful work is to connect “soviet satellite” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 24, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q53488. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1970.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Kosmos 348”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Kosmos 348 primary sources, Kosmos 348 archive and Kosmos research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Kosmos 348”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Kosmos 348” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.