Henderson Island Satellite Recovery Survey Mission

[sat_dxer]

On 7 July 2000 at the World Stamp Expo in Anaheim, California this Pitcairn Islands $5 NZD souvenir sheet was released as attached:

 

[blackstar]

This is kinda odd. I can't see any value in recovering satellites from orbit at that location. I wonder if there was interest in building some kind of tracking facility there for launches out of Vandnberg?
USNS Sunnyvale was the regular ship used in recovery of reconnaissance satellite capsules from orbit. C-130s flying out of Hawaii would do the recoveries, but Sunnyvale provided backup support in case a capsule landed in the water.

 

[Nik]

Would a short photo-recon mission out of Vandenberg crossing near Pitcairn cross any time-sensitive USSR sites that would be worth the trouble ?

IIRC, a lot of 'alternate' film capsule plans were abandoned after satellites became able to process and scan on-orbit...

 

[Byeman]

IIRC, a lot of 'alternate' film capsule plans were abandoned after satellites became able to process and scan on-orbit...

No, It was the other way around. Only 3 process and scan on-orbit reconn sats flew in total (excluding Lunar Oribter). The process and scan on-orbit concept was quickly abandoned and more 'alternate' film capsule plans were used (SAMOS E5& E6) or investigated (PRIME)

 

[Byeman]

This is kinda odd. I can't see any value in recovering satellites from orbit at that location. I wonder if there was interest in building some kind of tracking facility there for launches out of Vandnberg?
USNS Sunnyvale was the regular ship used in recovery of reconnaissance satellite capsules from orbit. C-130s flying out of Hawaii would do the recoveries, but Sunnyvale provided backup support in case a capsule landed in the water.

Maybe just an emergency strip for the JC-130s

 

[sat_dxer]

Or perhaps as an airbase to keep an eye on the French nuclear tests (post 1966) in Polynesia?

 

[blackstar]

This is kinda odd. I can't see any value in recovering satellites from orbit at that location. I wonder if there was interest in building some kind of tracking facility there for launches out of Vandnberg?
USNS Sunnyvale was the regular ship used in recovery of reconnaissance satellite capsules from orbit. C-130s flying out of Hawaii would do the recoveries, but Sunnyvale provided backup support in case a capsule landed in the water.

Maybe just an emergency strip for the JC-130s

Look it up on a map. It's nowhere near Hawaii. So if that organization was interested in that location, it had something to do with satellite recovery.

 

[Archibald]

Or perhaps as an airbase to keep an eye on the French nuclear tests (post 1966) in Polynesia?

"U-2s on carriers" took care of this, but I agree that solid ground might have been preferable...

 

[blackstar]

IIRC, a lot of 'alternate' film capsule plans were abandoned after satellites became able to process and scan on-orbit...

No, It was the other way around. Only 3 process and scan on-orbit reconn sats flew in total (excluding Lunar Oribter). The process and scan on-orbit concept was quickly abandoned and more 'alternate' film capsule plans were used (SAMOS E5& E6) or investigated (PRIME)

The more accurate term is film-readout. They took a picture with film, developed the film, then ran the film through a light scanner that converted the image to a radio transmission that was sent to the ground. You're right that it was quickly abandoned. Here is a quick list of US reconnaissance systems:

Samos E-1: film-readout
Samos E-2: film-readout
Samos E-3: a kind of film-readout, but canceled at the study stage
Samos E-4: film-return (mapping system, never flew)
Samos E-5: film-return
Samos E-6: film-return
KH-1 to KH-4B CORONA (all versions): film-return
KH-5 ARGON: film-return
KH-6 LANYARD: film-return
KH-7 and KH-8 GAMBIT: film-return
FROG: Film Read Out Gambit (never flew)
KH-9 HEXAGON: film-return
KH-10 MOL/DORIAN: film-return
KH-11 KENNEN: electro-optical (beamed its images to the ground)

Film is a very high-density storage medium. It can hold a lot of data. It vastly outperformed all other technologies for a long time. Although the details are classified, there is reason to believe that even into the 1990s the digital systems could not provide as much imagery as some of the film systems for a given period of time.

 

[Byeman]

This is kinda odd. I can't see any value in recovering satellites from orbit at that location. I wonder if there was interest in building some kind of tracking facility there for launches out of Vandnberg?
USNS Sunnyvale was the regular ship used in recovery of reconnaissance satellite capsules from orbit. C-130s flying out of Hawaii would do the recoveries, but Sunnyvale provided backup support in case a capsule landed in the water.

Maybe just an emergency strip for the JC-130s

Look it up on a map. It's nowhere near Hawaii. So if that organization was interested in that location, it had something to do with satellite recovery.

Wasn’t thinking

 

[Byeman]

AFP-437AP recovery basing?

 

[Archibald]

That one ? http://www.satobs.org/Program437AP/Program437AP.html

 

[sat_dxer]

Just an update
The first day cover features a map of the island with the runway in a NW to SE direction (based on the prevailing winds) and other base items as can be read from the drawing.