Orlets (russian: Орлец) was a series of

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

, and previously

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

photoreconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmishers, ...

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioi ...

s derived from and intended to augment the Yantar series of spacecraft. Ten satellites were launched between 1989 and 2006; eight in the

Orlets-1 Orlets-1 or Don (GRAU index 17F12) is a Russian (previously Soviet) reconnaissance satellite.NSSDC Master CatalogCosmos 2290/ref>Gunter's Space Page/ref> Orlets-1 was made after it was concluded that the Yantar-2K satellite was not capable of provi ...

configuration and two in the Orlets-2 configuration. Orlets satellites conducted optical imaging, returning images by means of film capsules. Orlets-1 spacecraft carried eight film capsules, whilst Orlets-2 carried twenty-two. Orlets-1 were launched by

Soyuz-U The Soyuz-U launch vehicle was an improved version of the original Soyuz rocket. Soyuz-U was part of the R-7 family of rockets based on the R-7 Semyorka missile. Members of this rocket family were designed by the TsSKB design bureau and cons ...

and

Soyuz-U2 The Soyuz-U2 ( GRAU index 11A511U2) was a Soviet, later Russian, carrier rocket. It was derived from the Soyuz-U, and a member of the R-7 family of rockets. It featured increased performance compared with the baseline Soyuz-U, due to the use ...

carrier rockets, with the larger

Zenit-2 The Zenit-2 is a Ukrainian, previously Soviet, expendable carrier rocket. First flown in 1985, it has been launched 37 times, with 6 failures. It is a member of the Zenit family of rockets and was designed by the Yuzhmash. History With 13– ...

being used to launch Orlets-2.

Satellites

:''* — Orlets-1 missions terminated by self-destruct, Orlets-2 by controlled deorbit''

References

Reconnaissance satellites of Russia Reconnaissance satellites of the Soviet Union Military equipment introduced in the 1980s {{USSR-spacecraft-stub