Kosmos 601

Kosmos 601 (Космос 601 meaning Cosmos 601), known before launch as DS-P1-Yu No.60, was a Soviet satellite which was launched in 1973 as part of the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik programme. It was a 400 kg spacecraft, which was built by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, and was used as a radar calibration target for anti-ballistic missile tests.

Launch
Kosmos 601 was successfully launched into low Earth orbit at 14:00:01 UTC on 16 October 1973. The launch took place from Site 133/1 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, and used a Kosmos-2I 63SM carrier rocket.

Orbit
Upon reaching orbit, the satellite was assigned its Kosmos designation, and received the International Designator 1973-075A. The North American Aerospace Defense Command assigned it the catalogue number 06875.

Kosmos 601 was the sixty-fifth of seventy nine DS-P1-Yu satellites to be launched, and the fifty-ninth of seventy two to successfully reach orbit. It was operated in an orbit with a perigee of 197 km, an apogee of 1404 km, 81.8 degrees of inclination, and an orbital period of 100.9 minutes. It remained in orbit until it decayed and reentered the atmosphere on 15 August 1974.