Yantar-2K

Yantar-2K was a Soviet film-return reconnaissance satellite and the first spacecraft of the Yantar series, which supplemented and then replaced the Zenit satellites. It was run by the GRU, the Soviet military intelligence agency, and stayed in orbit about thirty days, far longer than the eight to fourteen days of a Zenit. The craft was built from three conical sections: an equipment module with the propulsion unit, an instrument module, and a special equipment module that carried the Zhemchug-4 camera and returned to Earth at the end of the mission, while two smaller film return capsules came down earlier in the flight. It weighed about 6.6 tonnes. Proposed in 1967, it made a first test launch in May 1974 that ended in a launch failure, entered military service in 1978 under the name Feniks, and flew thirty launches in all before the last on 28 June 1983, after which the similar Yantar-4K1 took its place.