KH-7 GAMBIT-1 / KH-8 GAMBIT-3 / KH-9 HEXAGON

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Peterson Air and Space Museum
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ON THIS DAY, in 1971, the first Martin-Marietta Titan III-D space booster launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. It was a two-stage liquid-fueled, core vehicle with two additional outboard strap-on thrust pods of solid propellant.

Titan IIID was flown 22 times with KH-9 and KH-11 reconnaissance satellites between 1971 and 1982, all successful launches. It was designed for heavy low Earth orbit payloads.

It was retired from service in 1982, and replaced by the upgraded Titan 34D. All launches occurred from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
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What's GDPR ? sounds like GDR - East Germany. Should I blame the late Honecker ?
Or some kind of Ground Doppler Pulsed Radar...
 


Blacker than a very black thing: the HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite signals intelligence payloads
by Dwayne Day
Monday, January 10, 2022

On April 18, 1986, a giant Titan 34D rocket roared off its launch pad at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base and promptly blew itself to smithereens.

The rocket exploded only a few hundred feet above the ground, relatively close to the ocean, and rained pieces of rocket, propellant, and a top secret spy satellite all over the surrounding area. The satellite was a HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite, the last of its type, and its loss was a major blow to the American intelligence community, happening less than a year after another Titan launching from Vandenberg destroyed another reconnaissance satellite called CRYSTAL (originally KENNEN), leaving the United States with very limited reconnaissance capability.

In addition to the HEXAGON, there was another payload onboard, named LORRI II. Until now it was believed that LORRI II was a deployable subsatellite similar to dozens of others that had been pushed off various reconnaissance satellites for decades. But newly declassified information indicates that LORRI II was actually “an EHF search and VHF technical intelligence pallet” designed to stay attached to the HEXAGON in flight. And the new information indicates that the National Reconnaissance Office, which operated the nation’s fleet of intelligence satellites, had a previously unknown program for collecting signals intelligence carried on the HEXAGON and perhaps other spacecraft.

AFTRACK
The first American reconnaissance satellites were named CORONA, and soon after they began flying in the late 1950s the Central Intelligence Agency began adding electronic boxes to the aft rack of the Agena spacecraft that carried them in orbit. The payloads often had deployable antennas that sprang out of the rear of the satellites and collected radar and other signals from over the Soviet Union. These were known as AFTRACK payloads and dozens of them were carried into orbit through the mid-1960s before the signals intelligence mission was transitioned to other spacecraft, although systems for detecting possible electronic attack and radar tracking of the satellites were continued into the 1970s. The AFTRACK program was replaced by signals intelligence payloads on small subsatellites that were deployed off the same Agena aft racks that had previously held attached electronics boxes. These subsatellites had their own individual names and mission numbers, and many of them were put in orbit in the latter 1960s before the program slowed its pace but continued to periodically launch satellites into the 1980s (see “Little Wizards: Signals intelligence satellites during the Cold War,” The Space Review, August 2, 2021.)

The AFTRACK payloads were given individual mission numbers to designate their intelligence mission. They were numbered starting with 7201 and so on, ending with 7225. According to a declassified letter from Secretary of the Air Force Edward “Pete” Aldridge a few days after the 1986 HEXAGON explosion, the LORRI II pallet was designated “Mission 7242” and was part of Program 989. Program 989 was a designation adopted in the mid-1960s covering signals intelligence subsatellites, but was not previously known to cover pallets that remained attached to satellites. The schoolbus-sized HEXAGON carried film in the mid-section of the spacecraft that fed into two powerful cameras forward. The exposed film then flowed forward into four large kettle-shaped reentry vehicles in the forebody of the spacecraft. The pallet would have been attached to the slab-sided forebody, an area that contained sufficient real estate for both attached payloads and deployable ones.
 

Advanced Gambit and VHR
by Philip Horzempa
Monday, July 25, 2022

Newly declassified documents from the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) have revealed a previously unknown member of the Gambit reconnaissance satellite family. This was referred to as the Advanced Gambit-3 (AG3), though it is quite different from the standard Gambit-3 vehicles. It is so different from previous models that it could, and should, be referred to as Gambit-4. The AG3 included a camera that resembled the KH-10 from the Dorian Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program.

One is left to ponder the logic that led to the AG3 proposal. The NRO documents indicate that the project was started in 1973 with the first mission scheduled for mid-1978. This new series would have begun with mission #55 in the Gambit-3 series (the last Gambit-3/KH-8 mission was #54). At this time, the Hexagon KH-9 spacecraft was just entering service and the KH-11 was still a few years in the future.
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Arms control and satellites: early issues concerning national technical means
by Dwayne A. Day
Monday, October 10, 2022

In 1972, the United States and Soviet Union signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the Interim Agreement, collectively known as SALT I. A phrase that appeared in the treaty is “national technical means of verification.” This was an agreement by the two parties that they would verify the treaty without on-site inspections, using their own assets. Both sides also agreed not to interfere with these “national technical means.”

“National technical means” served as a euphemism for each country’s technical intelligence systems. Although these assets included ground, airborne, and other intelligence collection systems, the primary intelligence collectors for treaty verification were satellites, which both countries had been operating for over a decade, but neither country publicly discussed, certainly not with each other. The story of how American intelligence satellites became used for treaty verification has received relatively little attention. Declassified documents now make it possible to explore the issues surrounding their acceptance for this task in the late 1960s and early 1970s, although classification still presents limitations. Surprisingly, there appears to have been little initial skepticism on the American side about the ability to verify strategic arms control treaties using satellites. In fact, there are indications that by the early 1970s there was an overestimation of their capabilities, although the people who developed and operated them were concerned about their limitations, as well as the misperception about what they could do versus their actual capabilities.

This article discusses how the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which managed the National Reconnaissance Program—a term encompassing the American satellite intelligence program—addressed this new task of treaty verification in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the challenges it presented to the NRO.
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When you think about it there were five chapters in the KH-9 - Shuttle tortured love story.

Chapter 1 - 1971 - KH-9 dictates the Shuttle payload bay length: at 60 ft (KH-9 = TEMPLATE)

Chapter 2 - 1973 - How about launching additional KH-9s (beyond spacecraft 20) using the Shuttle ?

Chapter 3 - 1973 too - How about retrieving & refurbishing & re-launching a few of the 20 KH-9s with the Shuttle
a) on the ground ?
b) in space ?

Chapter 4 - Post 1975 - Forget all this. Think of the KH-9 camera only. Mounted on a rack in the Shuttle bay. Fly, refurbish, re-fly: WASP - ZEUS - DAMON

Chapter 5 - In the 1980's - the KH-9 mapping camera (secondary): could be passed to NASA as the Wide Field Camera...

A very complicated, tortured story.
 
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National Reconnaissance Office
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#TechTuesday : It wasn't easy catching Corona's film buckets by a plane in mid-air, especially when it was flying at 25,000 mph on orbit! (from a comment "NRO PAO, it is 17,500 mph for earth orbital missions. 25,000 mph is lunar mission entry velocity")

To make film recovery more manageable, NRO invented a return system that used a heat shield and 5-stage parachute to reduce the film buckets' speed to 13 mph, making recovery much more manageable.
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Hi All,

So we see spy satellites in movies zoom in and read number plates from space etc. But how good are they really? i've seen on here explanations of how close they can zoom in, but for the non-expert like me, can someone who knows give us an idea of how powerful modern photo satellites can be, please? a photo explanation would be great!

Thanks in advance
 
bob225 said:
Hi All,

So we see spy satellites in movies zoom in and read number plates from space etc. But how good are they really? i've seen on here explanations of how close they can zoom in, but for the non-expert like me, can someone who knows give us an idea of how powerful modern photo satellites can be, please? a photo explanation would be great!

Thanks in advance
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All time record ground resolution was in the 1970's by a KH-8 GAMBIT-3.
2.3 inch that is 6 cm.
From 80 miles high with a mirror 44 inch in diameter. Using film.
In 1986 they watched Chernobyl from 100 miles high with a (digital) KH-11. They could see the burned reactor but also the helicopters, the trucks the firemen and the liquidators.

The absolute limit is fixed by optics and Earth turbulent atmosphere: 2 inch so 5 cm.
 
Archibald said:
bob225 said:
Hi All,

So we see spy satellites in movies zoom in and read number plates from space etc. But how good are they really? i've seen on here explanations of how close they can zoom in, but for the non-expert like me, can someone who knows give us an idea of how powerful modern photo satellites can be, please? a photo explanation would be great!

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

All time record ground resolution was in the 1970's by a KH-8 GAMBIT-3.
2.3 inch that is 6 cm.
From 80 miles high with a mirror 44 inch in diameter. Using film.
In 1986 they watched Chernobyl from 100 miles high with a (digital) KH-11. They could see the burned reactor but also the helicopters, the trucks the firemen and the liquidators.

The absolute limit is fixed by optics and Earth turbulent atmosphere: 2 inch so 5 cm.
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Thanks,

So are we saying that if we laid out 5cm letters on my lawn they cold be read from space by these satellites?

This is the bit i struggle with, what does this really mean in terms of what you can see, the UK number plate letters are 79mm high, so from that i'm taking it that this would be visible / readable?

Do we have any images to prove this?
 
So are we saying that if we laid out 5cm letters on my lawn they cold be read from space by these satellites?

This is the bit i struggle with, what does this really mean in terms of what you can see, the UK number plate letters are 79mm high, so from that i'm taking it that this would be visible / readable?
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So it seems.

Ground sample distance - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Maxar is one of the most impressive companies out there, doing wonders over Ukraine (and elsewhere)

Maxar Technologies - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

en.wikipedia.org

DigitalGlobe - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Do we have any images to prove this?
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6 cm resolution means each pixel is 6 cm. So if the letters are made within a 5x5 square grid, where each letter has 5 rows of pixels in height, then the grid would be 30 cm tall.

Most licence plates have letters that are smaller. Perhaps up to 10 cm tall. Though, due to angle at which they are viewed from the sky, their projected dimensions are usually smaller, at just a few cm. Meaning it's really hard to read a licence plate in most cases, with a lot of guesswork involved.

Also, altitude of satellite is crucial. While 200km altitude was tested and sometimes used, nowadays most spy satellites fly higher. Even though that makes their ground resolution worse, it's still more desirable as it prolonges satellite's orbital lifetime several fold.
 
Thank you for that precision. TBH I had doubts about the exact meaning of that 6 cm number. I often forget that pixel stuff, just for the basic number.

Yep, the KH-8 that still holds that record was pretty cheap Agena rocket stage expendable vehicle, of which 362 were build and launch - among them 144 CORONA and 92 GAMBIT so at least 236 spysats, plus all the failed ones. By spaceflight standards, that's mass production.
They flew it 80 or even 70 miles high, so low that it almost reentered and burned. Somewhat ironically, this shook the spysat so much, they had a hard time not blurring the pictures. So much for "getting lower to get a better ground resolution."

As you note, present day KH-11 (since 1976) fly 200 miles or higher. As they are 40 000 pounds monsters, of which barely 20 have been build and launched. So yeah, they must be durable, because they cost an arm, a leg and a testicle. Ask Boeing and the NRO how much did the FIA failure cost them, a decade ago.
 
Archibald said:
Thank you for that precision. TBH I had doubts about the exact meaning of that 6 cm number. I often forget that pixel stuff, just for the basic number.

Yep, the KH-8 that still holds that record was pretty cheap Agena rocket stage expendable vehicle, of which 362 were build and launch - among them 144 CORONA and 92 GAMBIT so at least 236 spysats, plus all the failed ones. By spaceflight standards, that's mass production.
They flew it 80 or even 70 miles high, so low that it almost reentered and burned. Somewhat ironically, this shook the spysat so much, they had a hard time not blurring the pictures. So much for "getting lower to get a better ground resolution."

As you note, present day KH-11 (since 1976) fly 200 miles or higher. As they are 40 000 pounds monsters, of which barely 20 have been build and launched. So yeah, they must be durable, because they cost an arm, a leg and a testicle. Ask Boeing and the NRO how much did the FIA failure cost them, a decade ago.
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Actually different blocks of KH-11 appear to be using different orbits. Also it’s possible that some kind of follow on system or supplemental system is in operation that uses different orbits again. From my understanding though we nominally call them KH-11s that what they are has evolved considerably over time, I don’t think we are even sure that the latest variants use the same mirror size as the earlier blocks. Or even that they are still called KH-11s internally. Let alone variants like the so called ‘Misty’ ‘stealth’ versions.
 
Declassified photos captured by United States spy satellites launched during the Cold War have revealed an archaeological treasure trove: hundreds of previously unknown Roman-era forts, in what is now Iraq and Syria.
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…

High-resolution images analyzed in the new study were taken during flyovers by multiple satellites belonging to two US military programs: the Corona Project (1960 to 1972) and Hexagon (1971 to 1986). Corona’s images were declassified in 1995, and Hexagon’s photos were released to the public in 2011.
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amp.cnn.com

Long-lost Roman forts spotted in declassified spy satellite photos | CNN

Declassified photos taken by Cold War-era spy satellites have revealed hundreds of previously unknown Roman-era forts, in what is now Iraq and Syria, a new study found.
amp.cnn.com amp.cnn.com

Related paper:

 
This KH-9 image over Xichang Satellite Launch Center (and the surrounding area) in China was captured 43 years ago today: http://soar.earth/maps/12681
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These images are like a time capsule and they always bring me such joy to work through
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View: https://twitter.com/Harry__Stranger/status/1759920694941585839
 
Re: KENNEN and the 'soda straw' comment, it's always struck me as a little odd that the US didn't consider a search (i.e. medium-resolution) system with electro-optical imaging to succeed HEXAGON in the same way KENNEN succeeded GAMBIT. One assumes that budgetary considerations would have killed such an idea, but I've never heard of it even being discussed.
 
I think the reason was that it would bust any digital storage system. The 19 HEXAGONs mapped a 22.4 million squared-kilometers Soviet Union for 13 years (1971 - 1984). The volume of pictures was just overwhelming. KH-11 as a successor to KH-8 in the high-resolution role probably was close from the limits of storage technology. Well it in fact used film as stopgap storage media well into the 1990's !
 
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