The Kosmos rockets are a series of Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 and subsequently Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n rockets, derived from the R-12 and R-14 missiles, the most well known of which is the Kosmos-3M, which has made over 440 launches, and is still in service. The Kosmos family contains a number of rockets, both carrier rockets and sounding rocket

Sounding rocket

A sounding rocket, sometimes called a research rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The origin of the term comes from nautical vocabulary, where to sound is to throw a weighted line from a ship into...

s, for orbit

Orbit

In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...

al and sub-orbital spaceflight respectively. The first variant, the Kosmos-2I

Kosmos-2I

Kosmos-2I is the designation applied to two Soviet carrier rockets, members of the R-12 family, which were used to orbit satellites between 1961 and 1977. They were superseded by the R-14 derived Kosmos-3 and Kosmos-3M.-References:* http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/koss63s1.htm*...

, first flew on 27 October 1961. Over 700 Kosmos rockets have been launched overall.

Variants

Designation	GRAU Grau Grau is a German word meaning "gray" and a Catalan word meaning "grade". It may refer to:* BAP Almirante Grau , a De Zeven Provinciën class cruiser in service with the Peruvian Navy* Grau Käse, Tyrolean grey cheese...  index	Purpose	Derived from	Maiden flight	Final flight	Remarks
Kosmos-2I Kosmos-2I Kosmos-2I is the designation applied to two Soviet carrier rockets, members of the R-12 family, which were used to orbit satellites between 1961 and 1977. They were superseded by the R-14 derived Kosmos-3 and Kosmos-3M.-References:* http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/koss63s1.htm*...	63S1	Carrier rocket	R-12	27 October 1961	19 December 1967
Kosmos-1 Kosmos-1 The Kosmos-1 was a Soviet carrier rocket, derived from the R-14 missile, which was used to orbit satellites in 1964 and 1965. It served as an interim, and was quickly replaced by the Kosmos-3...	65S3	Carrier rocket	R-14	18 August 1964	28 December 1965
Kosmos-2M	63S1M	Both	R-12
Kosmos-2I Kosmos-2I Kosmos-2I is the designation applied to two Soviet carrier rockets, members of the R-12 family, which were used to orbit satellites between 1961 and 1977. They were superseded by the R-14 derived Kosmos-3 and Kosmos-3M.-References:* http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/koss63s1.htm*...	11K63	Carrier rocket	R-12	24 May 1966	18 June 1977
Kosmos-3 Kosmos-3 The Kosmos-3 was a Soviet carrier rocket, derived from the R-14 missile, which was used to orbit satellites between 1966 and 1968. It was quickly replaced by the modernised Kosmos-3M. Six were flown, four as orbital carrier rockets, and two on sub-orbital flights...	11K65	Carrier rocket	R-14	16 November 1966	27 August 1968
Kosmos-3M	11K65M	Carrier rocket	R-14	15 May 1967		Active
Kosmos-3MR	65MR	Sounding rocket Sounding rocket A sounding rocket, sometimes called a research rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The origin of the term comes from nautical vocabulary, where to sound is to throw a weighted line from a ship into...	R-14	1 January 1973		Active
Kosmos-3MP	65MP	Sounding rocket	R-14
Kosmos-3MRB	65MRB	Sounding rocket	R-14	5 December 1980	21 June 1988