could also be used for reconnaissance missions, satellite maintenance and space station defence. However, it is not clear how the scenario for the latter could be accomplished. It is therefore possible that the spaceplane could be a military vehicle only, but equally it could be used to ferry cosmonauts to and from manned space stations, replacing the current, expendable Soyuz vehicles for missions to LEO. It would therefore be used for those missions where the full capability of the large shuttle is not required. Photographs taken by the RAAF of the second Cosmos test vehicle flown in March 1983 and landed in the Indian Ocean show the vehicle to be essentially a lifting body, Fig. 13. The blunt aft end appears to have rocket engines. These would have been used for the de-orbit burn and there has been some suggestion that there was some powered flight after re-entry, thus increasing the cross range capability. Also, there is an elliptical area on each side of the vehicle below the cockpit. This area appears to be covered in tiles but its outline suggests blanked off air intakes. If these features are incorporated on a full-size vehicle, then these intakes could be used for ramjets for post re-entry powered flight. This would give very wide cross-range capability compared with an unpowered mode, hence the ability to return to Earth from almost any orbit instead of waiting for an optimum ground track. This again suggests the rapid response requirement and military nature of the vehicle. Orbits. All Soviet manned space missions have been flown from Tyuratam and current missions are flown at an inclination to the equator of 51.6°, although the Vostok series in the early 1960s were flown at an inclination of 65°. Higher inclination orbits are more useful for Earth observation, with obvious military applications. The highest inclination flown out of Tyuratam in a North Easterly direction is 71.4° and this was for an unmanned satellite. One of the considerations for a manned launch is downrange abort and the location of Tyuratam precludes manned launches in a Southerly direction. An abort occurring late in the launch phase on this flight path would result in the vehicle landing outside Soviet territory. Since the only known launch sites for the SLW are at Tyuratam this would seem to preclude the main intent being for its use as a weapons system.
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