Before the first HEXAGON spy satellite systems ever launched, the NRO's GAMBIT series of reconnaissance craft flew several space missions aimed at providing surveillance over specific targets around the world. In addition to keeping tabs on Soviet air capabilities, Gambit was also designed to photograph the spacecraft around it. The ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance] information gathered helps steer national policy decisions for everything from mundane trade negotiations to the blackest of ops. The first Coronas carried a paltry 8,000 feet of film—per camera—though through improvements in the film chemistry and design reduced the material thickness, researchers were eventually able to double that amount. Landis, who also worked on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope program, noticed some distinct similarities between Hubble and the huge KH-9 HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite. They also a began surviving longer. There's also wide speculation … © You will receive a verification email shortly. The three spacecraft were the centerpiece of the NRO's invitation-only, 50th Anniversary Gala celebration held at the center last evening. "This is still the most complicated system we've ever put into orbit …Period. Both of the newly declassified satellite systems, GAMBIT and HEXAGON, followed the U.S. military's frontrunner spy satellite system CORONA, which was declassified in 1995. Satellite technology is, by far, the most expensive ISR method at the US's disposal but also the most effective, its results well worth the billions of dollars spent. First launched in 1976 by the NRO, it's the first US satellite to employ an EO digital sensor and charge-coupled device (CCD), which reportedly provides an Enemy of the State-style real-time observation capability. The massive KH-9 Hexagon spy satellite on display at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center, after being declassified on Sept. 17, 2011. According to documents released by the NRO, each HEXAGON satellite mission lasted about 124 days, with the satellite launching four film return capsules that could send its photos back to Earth. Later missions continued to halve the resolution until researchers were able to resolve one-foot wide objects, realized that that was way too close to be of any strategic use and backed off to a more manageable 3-foot resolution. Longer than a school bus at 60 feet in length and weighing 30,000 pounds at launch, 20 KH-9 Hexagons were launched by the National Reconnaissance Office between 1971 and 1986. Eastman Kodak's A&O Division in Rochester, New York, produced the Gambit's primary strip camera system. An aircraft would catch the return capsule in mid-air by snagging its parachute following the canister's re-entry. The GAMBIT 1 craft had an average mission life of about 6 1/2 days. NASA's Rob Landis was both blunt and philosophical in his emotions over the declassification of the GAMBIT and HEXAGON programs. "During the era of these satellites — the GAMBIT and the HEXAGON — there was a Director of Central Intelligence committee known as the 'Committee on Imagery Requirements and Exploitation' that was responsible for that type of planning," confirmed the NRO's Robert McDonald, Director of the Center for the Study of National Reconnaissance. Most spy satellites have very limited life spans—two to three months—and once they're out of film they have no further purpose. During the Cold War, accurately ascertaining the USSR's military capabilities was a top US priority—as well it should have been given that we had as many as 21,000 nuclear warheads pointed at each other during that time. Day was exuberant after his first look at the KH-9 HEXAGON. It weighed about 4,130 pounds (1,873 kg). A total of 38 missions were launched, though 10 of them were deemed failures, according to NRO documents. The KH-9 HEXAGON, often referred to by its popular nickname "Big Bird," lived up to its legendary expectations. As long as the intelligence justified the price tag, any cost was acceptable. The end of the Cold War certainly put a damper on reconnaissance satellite funding, as did the rise of commercial satellite technology, but it remains a staple of our intelligence gathering resources. In a fascinating footnote, the film bucket from the first KH-9 HEXAGON sank to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in spring 1972 after Air Force recovery aircraft failed to snag the bucket's parachute. Between 1973 and 1980, these satellites imaged every square foot of the Earth in 29,000 pictures, much of it better quality than LANDSAT, a rival satellite mapping program. I can imagine that there may have been a convergence or confluence of the designs. The brand new Skylab had just launched when its meteoroid shield broke loose and damaged the space station. In all, 54 of the satellites were launched, with four failures recorded. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! "Once the space shuttle design was settled upon, the design of Hubble — at the time it was called the Large Space Telescope — was set upon. If the capsule wasn't retrieved within 48 hours, a salt plug at the bottom of the canister would dissolve and sink it. After the capsule discarded its heat shield at 60,000 feet, it deployed a parachute and could either be nabbed by a passing plane equipped with a claw hook (above) or land safely in the ocean where it would float for two days awaiting pickup. [See photos of the declassified U.S. spy satellites]. Once the camera had run through its full complement of film, it would eject the roll via a reentry capsule designed by General Electric. Press reports made limited references to the agency as far back as 1971, but it wasn't until the Deputy Secretary of Defense revealed the NRO in 1992, was it ever formally discussed by the DoD. "This was some bad-ass technology," Day told SPACE.com. As NASA scrambled to send up a manned repair mission, the NRO launched a new Gambit, which snapped this picture and helped NASA engineers plan accordingly. Gary Powers' U2 was shot down over Soviet airspace. In unseren Tests finden Sie echt ausnahmslos die Produkte, die unseren sehr festen Anforderungen erfüllen konnten. New York, There was a problem. NY 10036. And while its existence wasn't revealed until 2011, the program dates back to the 1960s as a successor to the Corona program. Us satellit Bewertungen. Space is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. (Image credit: Roger Guillemette/SPACE.com). In a daredevil feat of clandestine ingenuity, the U.S. Navy's Deep Submergence Vehicle Trieste II succeeded in grasping the bucket from a depth of 3 miles below the ocean. This $3.262 billion Lockheed-built NRO program is officially deemed a Broad Coverage Photo Reconnaissance satellite but is better known as "Big Bird." There's also wide speculation that the KH-11 is the source of images declassified in the wake of the 1998 embassy bombings, as well as others of China and Russia declassified the year prior. Hallo und Herzlich Willkommen auf unserer Webpräsenz. Our image of the day, Future astronauts could use methane to make rocket fuel on Mars. ", The HEXAGON's twin optical bar panoramic mirror cameras rotated as the swept back and forth as the satellite flew over Earth, a process that intelligence officials referred to as "mowing the lawn. No fewer than 54 such satellites launched (these things only worked for three months, tops) from Vandenberg AFB aboard Titan III rockets during that time. CHANTILLY, Va. – Twenty-five years after their top-secret, Cold War-era missions ended, two clandestine American satellite programs were declassified Saturday (Sept. 17) with the unveiling of three of the United States' most closely guarded assets: the KH-7 GAMBIT, the KH-8 GAMBIT 3 and the KH-9 HEXAGON spy satellites. Visit our corporate site. [10 Ways the Government Watches You]. "The Russians didn't have anything like it. [Infographic: NASA's Space Shuttle from Top to Bottom]. Get breaking space news and the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more! The KH-11 KENNAN is the most advanced recon satellite to be unclassified. A side view of a KH-7 GAMBIT spy satellite on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport, Va., on Sept. 17, 2011. Beim Us satellit Test schaffte es unser Testsieger in allen Kategorien gewinnen. Saturday's spysat unveiling was attended by a number of jubilant NRO veterans who developed and refined the classified spacecraft and its components for decades in secret, finally able to show their wives and families what they actually did 'at the office' for so many years. It took a few years for RAND researchers working on "Project Feedback" to figure out how a satellite would even function—this was a brand new technological concept, mind you—but by 1953 they had not only devised the general characteristics and capabilities of a reconnaissance satellite but had begun to develop many of the components as well, like the television system and altimeter. The images the CIA used to find Osama bin Laden's hideout were reportedly supplied by the KENNAN. Wir als Seitenbetreiber haben es uns zum Lebensziel gemacht, Varianten aller Art auf Herz und Nieren zu überprüfen, sodass die Verbraucher einfach den Us satellit bestellen können, den Sie zu Hause für gut befinden. Very little is known about the satellite's hardware though many have speculated that its roughly the same size as the Hubble Space Telescope with a similar 2.4-meter mirror producing a six inch resolution. Alle Us satellit auf einen Blick. Phil Pressel, designer of the HEXAGON's panoramic 'optical bar' imaging cameras, agreed with Day's assessment. As large as a school bus, the KH-9 HEXAGON carried 60 miles of high resolution photographic film for space surveillance missions. Of the 12 flights attempted, however, only five successfully put the unit in orbit. ET. Damit Sie zu Hause mit Ihrem Us satellit nach dem Kauf in allen Aspekten zufriedengestellt sind, hat unsere Redaktion auch noch eine große Liste an minderwertigen Produkte schon rausgesucht und gar nicht mit in die Liste aufgenommen. ", Each 6-inch wide frame of HEXAGON film capturing a wide swath of terrain covering 370 nautical miles — the distance from Cincinnati to Washington — on each pass over the former Soviet Union and China. The GAMBIT 3 series satellites had missions that averaged about 31 days. This image shows the flight profile for the NRO's GAMBIT 3 spy satellite missions between 1966 and 1984. Wir haben uns dem Ziel angenommen, Produkte verschiedenster Art zu analysieren, damit Interessierte schnell und unkompliziert den Us satellit ausfindig machen können, den Sie möchten. We were doing things we didn't need to do. Launched aboard a Thor booster rocket and Agena spacecraft, these satellites relied on a pair of five foot long stereoscopic Itek cameras using 12-inch, f/5 triplet lenses and a 24-inch focal length (later models also incorporated a third "index" camera for reference). It wasn't until the early 1990's that any information on these devices was declassified, after the fall of the Soviet Union brought an end to the Cold War. The GAMBIT 3 satellite was the same width but longer, stretching nearly 29 feet (9 m) long, not counting its Agena D rocket upper stage. Unlike conventional aperture cameras, the Gambit's slit camera reflected light off of a 48-inch mirror, through a slit aperture, and on to a moving length of Eastman Kodak Type 3404 film. ", Day, co-editor of "Eye in the Sky: The Story of the CoronaSpy Satellites," noted that "it took the Soviets on average five to 10 years to catch up during the Cold War, and in many cases they never really matched American capabilities.". The KH-11 KENNAN is the most advanced recon satellite to be unclassified. Unlike the follow-up HEXAGON satellites, the GAMBIT series were designed for extremely short missions. The behemoth HEXAGON was launched with 60 miles (320,000 feet) of film! The KH-5 ARGON ran in conjunction with Corona from 1961 to 1964, though never with the same degree of success. The KH-9 HEXAGON was, by all accounts, an unmitigated success with 19 of its 20 launches reaching orbit between 1971 and 1986. Former International Space Station flight controller Rob Landis, now technical manager in the advanced projects office at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, drove more than three hours to see the veil lifted from these legendary spacecraft. The only successful flight returned 910 photographic frames. Space Chat with Space.com: Tune in Fridays for science, space and more! And nowhere is this more evident than in the development of the US spy satellite fleet during the Cold War. The program began in 1959 at the Onizuka Air Force Station, ran until 1972, and was declassified in 1995 by President Clinton. Ethics aside, espionage is an indispensable part of statecraft. Sodass Sie als Kunde mit Ihrem Us satellit danach rundum glücklich sind, hat unsere Redaktion auch noch alle unpassenden Produkte im Test rausgesucht und gar nicht mit in die Liste aufgenommen. Baker, D: US Spy Satellite Owners' Workshop Manual US Military Space Reference Textbook: Aircraft communication, space operations, satellites, ship communications, rocket (English Edition) Recovering the Satellites Teenage Satellites Weather Satellites: Action … The vintage National Reconnaissance Office satellites were displayed to the public Saturday in a one-day-only exhibit at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport, Va. Once these potential targets were identified, a KH-8 would then be maneuvered to photograph the location in much higher resolution. This story was updated on Sept. 18 at 2:45 p.m. Oversight from the DoD and Congress was virtually non-existent save for the "open-checkbook" policy of the times. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. The CORONA program was a series of American strategic reconnaissance satellites produced and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Directorate of Science & Technology with substantial assistance from the U.S. Air Force.The CORONA satellites were used for photographic surveillance of the Soviet Union (USSR), the China, and other areas beginning in June 1959 and ending … Very little is known about the satellite's hardware though many have speculated that its roughly the same size as the Hubble Space Telescope with a similar 2.4-meter mirror producing a six inch resolution. During a media briefing, NRO officials confirmed to SPACE.com that the KH-8 GAMBIT 3 and KH-9 HEXAGON were later operated in tandem, teaming-up to photograph areas of military significance in both the former Soviet Union and China. The film inside the protective bucket reported contained high resolution photographs of the Soviet Union's submarine bases and missile silos. Im Besonderen der Sieger ragt aus den verglichenenen Us satellit enorm hervor und konnte weitestgehend ohne weiteres abräumen. The 144-member family of Corona satellites—each designated Keyhole-#, or KH-#, depending on the spacecraft iteration—were produced and operated by the CIA in conjunction with the USAF and provided invaluable photographic surveillance of the Soviet Union as well as the People's Republic of China, and other Communist countries. Wir haben es uns zur Aufgabe gemacht, Verbraucherprodukte jeder Variante ausführlichst zu analysieren, sodass Sie als Interessierter Leser unmittelbar den Us satellit … Us satellit - Bewundern Sie dem Favoriten. Both satellites were huge and launched out of Vandenberg Air Force Base. "You have to give credit to leaders like President Eisenhower who had the vision to initiate reconnaissance spacecraft, beginning with the CORONA and Discoverer programs," Landis said. Fifteen KH-11's have been launched in total—nine between 1976 and 1990 aboard Titan-3D rockets, five between 1992 and 2005 aboard Titan IVs, and the final one in 2011 aboard a Delta IV—at an estimated cost of $2.2 to 3 billion. [Related: Anatomy of a Spy Satellite] The GAMBIT 1 series satellite has a resolution similar to the HEXAGON series, about 2 to 3 feet, but the follow-up … With ever increasing film payloads, the final iteration of the Corona program, 's... 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