| Sputnik 40 | |
| Mission Type: | Amateur radio |
| Operator: | Aéro-Club de France AMSAT Rosaviakosmos |
| Cospar Id: | 1997-058C |
| Mission Duration: | 1-2 months |
| Launch Date: | UTC |
| Launch Site: | Baikonur 1/5 |
| Deployment From: | Mir |
| Deployment Date: | 3 November 1997, 04:05 UTC |
| Decay Date: | 21 May 1998 |
| Orbit Epoch: | 4 November 1997 |
| Orbit Reference: | Geocentric |
| Orbit Regime: | Low Earth |
| Orbit Periapsis: | 376km (234miles) |
| Orbit Apoapsis: | 382km (237miles) |
| Orbit Inclination: | 51.6 degrees |
| Apsis: | gee |
Sputnik 40 (ru|Спутник 40, fr|Spoutnik 40), also known as Sputnik Jr,[1] PS-2 and Radio Sputnik 17 (RS-17),[2] was a Franco-Russian amateur radio satellite which was launched in 1997 to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite.[3] A 4kg (09lb)[2] one-third scale model of Sputnik 1,[4] Sputnik 40 was deployed from the Mir space station on 3 November 1997.[5] Built by students, the spacecraft was constructed at the Polytechnic Laboratory of Nalchik in Kabardino-Balkaria, whilst its transmitter was assembled by Jules Reydellet College in Réunion with technical support from AMSAT-France.
Sputnik 40 was launched, along with a backup spacecraft and the X-Mir inspection satellite, aboard Progress M-36 at 15:08 UTC on 5 October 1997.[6] A Soyuz-U carrier rocket placed the spacecraft into orbit, flying from 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan: the same launch pad used by Sputnik 1.[6] Progress M-36 docked to Mir on 8 October,[7] and the satellites were transferred to the space station. At 04:05 UTC on 3 November,[5] during an extra-vehicular activity, Sputnik 40 was deployed by cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev and Pavel Vinogradov.[8]
On 4 November, the day after it was deployed, Sputnik 40 was in a low Earth orbit with a perigee of, an apogee of, an inclination of 51.6 degrees, and a period of 92.13 minutes.[9] The satellite was given the International Designator 1997-058C, and was catalogued by the United States Space Command as 24958.[10] It ceased operations on 29 December 1997 when its batteries expired,[11] [12] and subsequently decayed from orbit on 21 May 1998.[9] The backup satellite remained aboard Mir, and was destroyed when Mir was deorbited on 23 March 2001.[2]