Cosmos 2240

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General

Designation	22592 / 93021A
Launch date	2 Apr 1993 at 14:10 UT
Country of origin	CIS
Mission	Military: Reconnaissance (Yantar; 4th generation)
Perigee/Apogee	196/342 km
Inclination	62.8°
Period	89.6 min
Launch vehicle	Soyuz
Launch site	Plesetsk

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End of life

Decay

7 Jun 1993

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4th generation Russian reconnaissance satellites (extracted from JSR)

It appears that, unlike all earlier Soviet imaging reconnaissance satellites, they do not use the 1959-vintage Vostok satellite bus, although they are probably still made by the same company, the TsSKB (Central Specialized Design Bureau), formerly a subdivision of NPO Energiya. They were introduced in 1975, and originally had a lifetime of 30 days which was a big improvement on the Vostok satellites, at that time limited to 15 day missions. Later minor improvements increased the lifetime, first to 44 days and then, in 1984, to 59 days. The two flights so far this year [1993] show a further improvement, lasting 65 and 66 days. This modest increase is nevertheless significant as the first sign of an upgrade to this satellite class in a decade. By my count [Jonathan McDowell speaking], Kosmos-2240 is the 107th in the series, although the classification of several flights is controversial.

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