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Do you have more info than that? Most of the links in the article's sources are dead and I'm not familiar with that requirement. I didn't even realize that the

Do you have more info than that? Most of the links in the article's sources are dead and I'm not familiar with that requirement. I didn't even realize that the USSR put things in polar orbits (as opposed to Mulniya). Speaking of the USSR, I think Bran's wings were even bigger than the shuttle's. Was that just a case of copy-and-paste design? And did that cross range ability reduce the number of abort sites that NASA needed to maintain?

simonh 7y ago
Molniya orbits put the satellite at a relatively high altitude when it's over the target area, compared to a low polar orbit. If you absolutely have to get the highest resolution close up photos possible of a whole bunch of Capitalist military sites all over the world, low polar is the way to go, or at least was back when the Shuttle was designed. Molniya orbits are best thought of as an alternative to geostationary orbits, for applications requiring sustained coverage over large areas up north.