Sixth Generation Digital Recons
A sixth generation of photo recons began operations with Kosmos 2031 in 1989. The spacecraft drew immediate attention with its 50.5 degree inclination, a rarely used orbit often employed for testing new satellites. (The previous use was the inaugural flight of the fifth-generation photo recon nearly seven years earlier.) The sixth-generation spacecraft, believed to carry both film return capsules and digital transmission capabilities, have only flown five times: once each year during 1989-1993.
Sixth-generation photo recons have only been launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome using the Soyuz-U2 launch vehicle, which has otherwise been restricted to supporting Soyuz TM and Progress-M missions. Following the first mission, each spacecraft was inserted into an orbital inclination of 64.8-64.9 degrees with mean operational altitudes normally between 240 and 260 km. Another peculiar, identifying character is the in-orbit detonation of sixth-generation spacecraft at the end of their operational lives. Kosmos 2262, the last sixth-generation mission the only one to be launched during 1993-1994, nearly doubled the 60-day record of its processors with a flight lasting 102 days. The spacecraft was destroyed in orbit as it passed over northeastern Russia, ensuring that much of the debris would fall into the Pacific Ocean.
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