First-ever publication of the report on developing the radio transmitter for the first Earth satellites. The D-200 instrument
Archive post.
Translated from Ukrainian.
An interesting historical document has been declassified: “Report on the development of the onboard radio station of the first Soviet artificial Earth satellite. ‘Instrument D-200’”. I read with great interest about how they chose the frequencies and planned the power budget when building these unique transmitters 70 years ago. I recommend it to anyone interested in radio history, amateurs and professionals alike.
The radio station consisted of two transmitters and a switching unit. Together they weighed about 7 kg. The radio station was developed at NII-885 in January–March 1957. The design work and production drawings were completed in March–April 1957.
NII-885 issued the report on building the onboard radio station of the first artificial Earth satellite in 1958. At the time, though, the material was classified. Now anyone can read it.
Sample pages from the report
Sample pages from the report
The D-200 instrument
Technical drawing of Sputnik-1: the detail in the left corner identifying the drawing as No. 333/57 is crossed out and marked with the date ‘59. This was most likely due to changes in the antenna design. Photo from the archive of Andreas Schulz
A Russian postcard marking two events in space exploration: the launch of the first Soviet artificial Earth satellite on October 4, 1957, and the launch of the second satellite on November 3, 1957. Photo from Rykoff Collection / Corbis via Getty