Fifth Generation Digital Recons
The fifth-generation, digital transmission photo recons debuted in 1982 with the flight of Kosmos 1426. With a reported resolution of at least 2 m, these spacecraft are normally launched once or twice per year from the Baikonur Cosmodrome into inclinations of 64.9 degrees or 70.4 degrees. After the initial mission of 67 days, the fifth generation photo recons quickly extended their normal operational lifetimes to 170-260 days. Beginning in 1992, mission durations increased markedly, culminating in the 418-dayflight of Kosmos 2267 (5 November 1993). Data transmissions can apparently be made directly to special ground stations or relayed via geosynchronous satellites of the Geyser class (References 40-45). The fifth-generation spacecraft may resemble the civilian Resurs-Spektr spacecraft (Section 4.3.11).
Kosmos 2267 was the only fifth-generation photo recon launched in 1993, having been launched about six weeks before its predecessor, Kosmos 2223, finished its mission. Kosmos 2267 was joined on 28 April 1994 by Kosmos 2280. For the next eight months, the pair worked together in orbital planes 90 degrees apart, often alternating their orbital maneuvers at roughly 20-day intervals. Kosmos 2267 finally was deorbited over the Pacific Ocean on 28 December 1994, only to be followed the next day by the next in the series, Kosmos 2305 (Reference 45).
