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KH-6 Lanyard

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BYEMAN codenamed LANYARD, the KH-6 was the unsuccessful first attempt to develop and deploy a very high-resolution optical reconnaissance satellite by the United States National Reconnaissance Office.[1] Launches and launch attempts spanned the period from March to July 1963. The project was quickly put together to get imagery of a site near Leningrad suspected of having anti-ballistic missiles.[2]

A KH-6 LANYARD main features
Thor SLV-2A Agena D (Thor 360) with KH-6 8001 on 18 March 1963
Thor-SLV2A Agena-D (Thor 364) with KH-6 2 on 18 May 1963

The satellite carried Itek's "E-5" camera developed for the SAMOS program, which had been cancelled. The camera had a focal length of 1.67 m (5 ft 6 in) and could discern objects on the ground 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) in size. The ground swath of the camera was 14 km × 74 km (8.7 mi × 46.0 mi). The satellite weighed 1,500 kg (3,300 lb), and had a single re-entry vehicle in which exposed film was returned to earth for a mid-air[3] aircraft recovery.

The KH-6 was manufactured by Lockheed Martin and launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Thor-Agena D launch vehicles.[4]

Launches

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KH-6 8001 was launched from Vandenberg AFB aboard a Thor-Agena D launch vehicle (Thor 360)[5] at 00:00:00 GMT on 18 March 1963. It was the first of three KH-6 LANYARD launches. This mission was a failure because the Agena guidance system failed.[6][2]

KH-6 8002 was launched from Vandenberg AFB aboard a Thor-Agena D rocket (Thor 364)[5] at 22:34:00 GMT on 18 May 1963. This was the second launch KH-6 LANYARD satellite. This spacecraft achieved orbit but the Agena rocket failed in flight and no film data were returned.[7][8]

KH-6 8003 was launched from Vandenberg AFB aboard a Thor-Agena D rocket (Thor 382)[5] at 00:00:00 GMT on 31 July 1963. This was the third and final KH-6 (LANYARD) mission that was designed to provide very high-resolution photos (61 cm), but the best resolution achieved was 183 cm, the same as KH-4B, so LANYARD was discontinued after this 3rd flight in 1963. The camera failed after 32 hours.[9] The mission was deemed a success but the image quality was poor.[10] The film canister contained over 2,250 feet of film with 910 photographic frames.[3]

See also

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to KH-6 LANYARD.

References

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  1. ^ "NRO review and redaction guide (2006 ed.)" (PDF). National Reconnaissance Office.
  2. ^ a b "NASA - NSSDCA - Spacecraft - Details". nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  3. ^ a b Federation of American Scientists FASorg: KH-6 Archived 21 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "KH-6 Lanyard". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
  5. ^ a b c "Thor Agena". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
  6. ^ "NASA".
  7. ^ "NASA".
  8. ^ "NASA - NSSDCA - Spacecraft - Details". nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  9. ^ "NASA - NSSDCA - Spacecraft - Details". nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  10. ^ "NASA".
  • Mark Wade (9 August 2003). KH-6 Encyclopedia Astronautica Accessed April 23, 2004
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