Kosmos 196 (Russian: Космос 196 meaning Cosmos 196), also known as DS-U1-G No.2, was a Soviet satellite which was launched in 1967 as part of the Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik programme.

It was a 352 kilograms (776 lb) spacecraft, which was built by the Yuzhnoye Design Office, and was used to study the effects of solar activity on the upper atmosphere.

[4] The launch occurred at 06:30:07 GMT on 19 December 1967, and resulted in the successfully insertion of the satellite into low Earth orbit.

The North American Air Defense Command assigned it the catalogue number 03074.

[6] It was operated in an orbit with a perigee of 223 kilometres (139 mi), an apogee of 860 kilometres (530 mi), an inclination of 49.0°, and an orbital period of 95.5 minutes.