The Foton satellite program is a Russian platform for microgravity research. The satellite is launched onboard a Soyuz rocket and re-enters like the Vostok capsule. That means that the heat shield is all around the capsule, and the vehicle entries ballistically. The last Foton mission was flown in 2014 as Foton-M4, and the Foton-M5 mission is set for 202x.

The Zenit spy satellite had been providing the USSR’s intelligence agency with photographic data from orbit in the early days of the Cold War, similarly to the USA’s Corona spy satellites. However, there was a need to develop an improved spy satellite that could match the capabilities of the USA’s KH-4A satellites. Design work on this new spacecraft began in 1964 and would eventually lead to the Yantar class spy satellites, which entered service in 1977. [171]

The first operational version, Yantar-2K “Feniks” had a conical shape to which two spherical return capsules (SpK) of 0.8 meters in diameter were attached. Throughout its operational lifetime of 30 days, the vehicle would photograph places of interest on film rolls. The first of the two spherical capsules re-entered after ten days in orbit to allow for a fast return of the photographic data. The second spherical capsule returned after 18 days in orbit. A small solid rocket booster and sets of spin-up thrusters guaranteed a controlled re-entry, followed by a parachute-assisted landing. [172]

At the end of the mission, after 30 days in orbit, the special instrument module of the satellite detached itself to deliver the last photographic film roll, as well as the onboard camera, which could then be reused on the next flight. Therefore, this return capsule was equipped with a heat shield and parachute landing system, similar to that of Voskhod. A solid rocket motor with four nozzles was installed on the parachute riser to provide additional deceleration to guarantee a soft landing. [172]

The development of the first version, Yantar-2K, was far from troublesome as it was plagued with launch vehicle failures, malfunctioning solid rocket motors, and a failed parachute deployment. On the sixth flight test in 1977, thirteen years after the project kick-off, all systems of Yantar-2K proved to work as intended. After this difficult start, the family of Yantar spy satellites was operational for almost 40 years, with roughly 179 launches. [172]

The latter would still be used well in the 21^st century, up until its decommissioning in 2015. There has also been a hybrid configuration between Yantar and Zenit, such as for example the Yantar-1KFT “Kometa”, which featured a Yantar architecture with a Zenit return capsule, operating as a cartographic satellite. Not much is known about how much the entry, descent, and landing architecture of these Yantar variants deviates from the one that was developed for Yantar-2K. [172][173]

In the ‘80s, the Yantar-4KS1 “Terilen” variant was also introduced, which used digital data transmission instead of return capsules. This allowed for a significantly longer mission duration of 207 days, which later increased to 259 days for the improved version, Yantar-4K1M “Neman”. These satellites laid the foundation for future digital spy satellites of Russia, such as Persona.

In the midst of the cold war, aerial espionage was key for the United States to gather intelligence on the USSR’s capabilities. The U-2 spy planes had been flying successfully over the Soviet Union for many years, however the idea of using a spacecraft for espionage was very promising. Therefore the Corona spy satellite program was initiated in 1956. These satellites were tasked to fly over the USSR multiple times and then return the footage to the US. The missions were also named ‘Discover’ as a cover for the public, to whom was said that the objective was to fly scientific payloads to space, which did occasionally happen.

The re-entry capsule was a blunt cone with a spherical front, also referred to as ‘bucket’,  and used a two-stage parachute recovery system. A drogue chute decelerates the capsule, after which the main deploys. Instead of a water landing, an aircraft would snatch the capsule by catching the parachute mid-air. This proved to be challenging and often required multiple attempts per capsule, even with a trained pilot. Three different main parachute designs have been flown on the Corona capsules in an attempt to improve the mid-air capture success rate, although without much success. Apart from the mid-air recovery aircraft, there were ships and helicopters present within the recovery area to capture the capsule in case of a splashdown. These proved to be necessary in multiple occasions when the vehicle was off-course and landed outside of the recovery area. The retrieval experience gained during the Corona – Discoverer program proved very valuable during retrieval of the Apollo missions.

Much like the US Corona and the Soviet Zenit satellites, China had their own recoverable satellite called Fanshui Shi Weixing. Their main objective was to act as spy satellites, later variants also served as biosatellites much like the Soviet Bion capsules. One interesting feature was the thermal protection of the FSW satellites, this was done using impregnated oak. This allowed for quickly produced ablative thermal protection. 

The FSW satellites also briefly served as the baseline for China's second crewed capsule after the Shuguang spacecraft was cancelled. However, some sources suggest that this program was solely for propaganda purposes and never designed for operation. 

To develop and improve technologies for small satellites, the Technology Educational Satellites are launched. These missions have the final goal of using and possibly land a small satellite on Mars or another planetary body [35]. Over the course of the past eight years, nine satellites have been launched, TechEdSat 1-8, and 10.

The RED-25 capsule or Re-Entry Device with a payload capability of 25 kg. The organisation behind this capsule is SpaceWorks, an Atlanta-based company which houses legacy members of both Generation Orbit and Terminal Velocity Aerospace. RED-25 is designed to be carried towards orbit, after which it will provide weightlessness experiments that can be returned to earth and other types of sample and cargo return. The capsule weighs about 15 kg and is 1 meter in diameter. For safe landing, the capsule is equipped with a guided parafoil for precision landing [156]. 

SpaceWorks is working on a family of capsules including RED-50, RED-25, RED-12, and RED-8. The smallest has a diameter of about 0.5 meters and the larger capsule has a diameter of 1.3 meters. No orbital flights have been performed to date, however, the company conducted several drop tests that seem to be successful. Besides offering missions with a single payload the company is considering a RED-4U mission which holds four cubesat-style payloads, this capsule seems to be based on the RED-8 configuration as the total payload mass indicated is 8 kg [157]]. 

A smaller version of the RED capsules is the RED-DATA2. This capsule comes in with a diameter of 23cm and a height of 19 cm. The shape of the vehicle is very similar to the others but the mission is geared more towards TPS testing, atmospheric re-entry data gathering and flight environment profiling. Three RED-DATA2 capsules were included in the S.S. John Glenn Cygnus capsule. After Cygnus broke up due during re-entry the RED capsule did not communicate anything back to earth. Terminal Velocity Aerospace, the operator at that time, made several recommendations for future flights. [158, 159]