Cosmos 23 was the second test platform orbited by Russia for the purpose of evaluating electrotechnical systems later used to insure the orientation and stabilization of weather satellites. Like its predecessor, Cosmos 14, the satellite was in the form of a cylinder, with two hemispherical ends, and was 1.8 m long and 1.2 m in diameter. Tests were made of power supplies that used solar cell batteries, and equipment on board monitored the operation of automatic devices that controlled the solar and chemical batteries. The control stabilization system consisted of flywheels driven by electric motors. The kinetic energy of the flywheels was dampened by using electromagnets that produced torque by interacting with the earth's magnetic field. This system provided three-axis stabilization and oriented the satellite on the center of the earth. The satellite communicated via a 'Mayak' radio transmitter operating at 20 MHz. Cosmos 23 may have also carried the first Russian meteorological scanning IR radiometer to obtain crude nighttime pictures of the earth's cloud cover. The results of these tests and similar ones conducted 8 months earlier on Cosmos 14 were incorporated in Cosmos 122 and subsequent launches in the Cosmos 'Meteor' system. These two flights comprised the first stage in the development of Russian weather satellites. Cosmos 23 re-entered the atmosphere on March 27, 1964, after 105 days in orbit.