Cosmos-2 rocket tech dossier: Soon after launch of the first
Soviet "Sputniks" both military and scientific organizations in
the USSR expressed interest in sending small semi-experimental
payloads into space using somewhat smaller rockets than R-7.
Yangel's R-12 seemed to be the best candidate for transformation
into such launcher. According to the official history of the
Yuzhnoe design bureau, as early as in 1956, Dimitry Ustinov
requested OKB-586 to study a possibility of launching small
satellites onboard the R-12 missile. (98) OKB 586 started work
on the project encoded 63S1 as early as April 1960. On August 8,
1960 Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers
of the USSR signed a resolution approving R-12-based launch-
vehicle as well as development of ten compatible satellites for
scientific research. While R-12 itself needed minimal
modifications to be used as the first stage of launch-vehicle,
the upper stage for orbital injection had to be developed from
scratch. Further, it had to compe