I can imagine that there may have been a convergence or confluence of the designs. 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 … And if nothing else had come out of it except the knowledge that we gained from space photography, it would be worth ten times what the whole program has cost. Please deactivate your ad blocker in order to see our subscription offer. Of course, much of the development of our national reconnaissance capabilities is still shrouded in veils of classification. 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. As President Lyndon B. Johnson famously quipped in 1967 after a Soviet hoax led to worries of a bomber gap: I wouldn't want to be quoted on this ... We've spent $35 or $40 billion on the space program. It would then either drop the roll as the Coronas did or automatically develop the photographs, scan them, and transmit the images back to Earth in as little as 20 minutes through the Film Read-Out GAMBIT (FROG) feature (though after $2 billion dollars and nearly a decade of development the 1971 administration nix(on)ed it). [10 Ways the Government Watches You]. [Infographic: NASA's Space Shuttle from Top to Bottom]. Heck, the NRO was established in 1961 and operated for three decades before the government even ever acknowledged its existence. © The first such program was the Corona project, a codeword itself code named "Discoverer" for the public explanation of why the government was firing a rocket into space (a rare event in the late 1950s that would have attracted a curious public and international scrutiny). By 1954, the USAF accepted RAND's assertion that the technology was of "vital strategic interest to the United States" and officially established the US satellite program. The satellite series' initial version was 15 feet (4.5 m) long and 5 feet (1.5 m) wide, and weighed about 1,154 pounds (523 kilograms). 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. Get breaking space news and the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more! Satellite imagery was first used in 1991 during Desert Shield and again in Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan (above). The KH-9 HEXAGON was, by all accounts, an unmitigated success with 19 of its 20 launches reaching orbit between 1971 and 1986. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! 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. The Atomic Energy Commission also began work on miniaturized nuclear power sources for the vehicles at that time. 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. [See photos of the declassified U.S. spy satellites]. ", "Frankly, I think that GAMBIT and HEXAGON helped prevent World War III.". The technology has also found new use in providing tactical information to ground troops (not having to catch film canisters with sky hooks helps). Im Us satellit Test sollte unser Gewinner bei fast allen Kriterien punkten. The last three generations featured a pair of panoramic cameras as well as upgraded electronics, C&C systems and nitrogen-supplied re-entry canisters. 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. An aircraft would catch the return capsule in mid-air by snagging its parachute following the canister's re-entry. Die Betreiber dieses Portals begrüßen Sie zu Hause hier. Of the 12 flights attempted, however, only five successfully put the unit in orbit. 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). Us satellit - Bewundern Sie dem Testsieger unserer Experten. There was a problem. Oversight from the DoD and Congress was virtually non-existent save for the "open-checkbook" policy of the times. Editor's note: This story was updated on Sept. 19 to correct the name of Phil Pressel, who designed the HEXAGON spy satellite camera system. The GAMBIT 3 series satellites had missions that averaged about 31 days. The film inside the protective bucket reported contained high resolution photographs of the Soviet Union's submarine bases and missile silos. Unlike the follow-up HEXAGON satellites, the GAMBIT series were designed for extremely short missions. The first generation of HEXAGON employed a pair of f/3.0 folded Wright Camera cameras with a 60-inch focal length able to resolve objects down to 2 feet and carried four re-entry vehicles. What we do know is that the US has been researching high-altitude reconnaissance technology since about 1946 when the RAND project, precursor to Rand Corp., began campaigning for its development. NY 10036. Once the camera had run through its full complement of film, it would eject the roll via a reentry capsule designed by General Electric. Day was exuberant after his first look at the KH-9 HEXAGON. The program was declassified in Sept. 2011. vintage National Reconnaissance Office satellites, See photos of the declassified U.S. spy satellites, Infographic: NASA's Space Shuttle from Top to Bottom, Don't miss Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury shine in a triple-conjunction this weekend, Sunquakes likely triggered deep beneath solar surface. Both vehicles (KH-9 and Hubble) would fit into the shuttle's cargo bay lengthwise, the KH-9 being longer than Hubble [60 feet]; both would also fit on a Titan-class launch vehicle. This story was updated on Sept. 18 at 2:45 p.m. The KH-9 HEXAGON, often referred to by its popular nickname "Big Bird," lived up to its legendary expectations. The behemoth HEXAGON was launched with 60 miles (320,000 feet) of film! The bus-size satellites weighed 30,000 pounds and were 60 feet long. Entspricht der Us satellit der Qualität, die Sie als Käufer für diesen Preis erwarten? As long as the intelligence justified the price tag, any cost was acceptable. Most of these images have been declassified since 2002, though sensitive areas such as government installations and most of Israel remain tightly guarded. The GAMBIT 1 series satellite has a resolution similar to the HEXAGON series, about 2 to 3 feet, but the follow-up GAMBIT 3 system had an improved resolution of better than 2 feet, NRO documents reveal. 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 Hubble’s primary mirror is 2.4 meters [7.9 feet] in diameter and the spacecraft is 14 feet in diameter. 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. Besonders unser Gewinner ragt aus diversen getesteten Us satellit massiv heraus und sollte so gut wie bedingungslos gewinnen. 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. 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. Beim Us satellit Test schaffte es unser Testsieger in allen Kategorien gewinnen. In all, 54 of the satellites were launched, with four failures recorded. The KH-11 KENNAN is the most advanced recon satellite to be unclassified. Once these potential targets were identified, a KH-8 would then be maneuvered to photograph the location in much higher resolution. Please refresh the page and try again. This $3.262 billion Lockheed-built NRO program is officially deemed a Broad Coverage Photo Reconnaissance satellite but is better known as "Big Bird." 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. The  satellite program's initial system, GAMBIT 1, first launched in 1963 carrying a KH-7 camera system that included a "77-inch focal length camera for providing specific information on scientific and technical capabilities that threatened the nation," according to an NRO description. Wir haben es uns zur Aufgabe gemacht, Verbraucherprodukte jeder Variante ausführlichst zu analysieren, sodass Sie als Interessierter Leser unmittelbar den Us satellit … The program began in 1959 at the Onizuka Air Force Station, ran until 1972, and was declassified in 1995 by President Clinton. As large as a school bus, the KH-9 HEXAGON carried 60 miles of high resolution photographic film for space surveillance missions. 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. Its initial budget was a modest $108.2 million ($860 million adjusted to 2013), though that quickly increased following the 1960 incident in which Gary Powers' U2 was shot down over Soviet airspace. 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. There's also wide speculation … ET. 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. ", 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. 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. "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. Us satellit Bewertungen. [Raytheon - NRO - FAS 1, 2 - Wiki 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 - Oneonta - Images: NRO, CIA, NASA]. Phil Pressel, one of the developers of the KH-9 Hexagon's panoramic camera system, proudly points out some of the spacecraft's once highly-classified features, a life's work that he had been unable to discuss publicly until the NRO's Sept. 17, 2011 declassification of the massive spy satellite. 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. Space Chat with Space.com: Tune in Fridays for science, space and more! New York, 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. The HEXAGON's final launch in April 1986 — just months after the space shuttle Challenger explosion — also met with disaster as the spy satellite's Titan 34D booster erupted into a massive fireball just seconds after liftoff, crippling the NRO's orbital reconnaissance capabilities for many months. Jeder unserer Redakteure begrüßt Sie hier. It weighed about 4,130 pounds (1,873 kg). The GAMBIT satellite program was active from July 1963 to April 1984. 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. The NRO launched 20 KH-9 HEXAGON satellites from California's Vandenberg AFB from June 1971 to April 1986. 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. The early cameras could achieve a 40-foot resolution. A second GAMBIT satellite system, which first launched aboard GAMBIT 3 in 1966, included a175-inch focal length camera. These 1150 - 1500 kg satellites manufactured by Lockheed Martin and operated by the NR used a single 76 mm focal length camera with a 140 meter resolution were operated primarily for map-making—they were the first to image Antarctica from space—and took less than a week to produce. The cameras themselves underwent numerous upgrades as well, elongating to nine feet and incorporating panoramic Petzval f/3.5 lenses. Space is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. In welcher Häufigkeit wird der Us satellit voraussichtlich benutzt? Visit our corporate site. Ethics aside, espionage is an indispensable part of statecraft. However, the image quality was so poor that they were virtually useless. Us satellit - Der absolute Gewinner . ", The 'convergence or confluence' theory was confirmed later in the day by a former spacecraft designer, who declined to be named but is familiar with both programs, who confided unequivocally: "The space shuttle's payload bay was sized to accommodate the KH-9." 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 GAMBIT 1 craft had an average mission life of about 6 1/2 days. 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. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. These 1500 kg Lockheed satellites were hastily constructed using the previously-cancelled Itek "E-5" camera in order to survey a rumored anti-ballistic missile site near Tallinn, Estonia. NASA's Rob Landis was both blunt and philosophical in his emotions over the declassification of the GAMBIT and HEXAGON programs. Unseren Ranglisten finden Sie echt ausnahmslos die Produkte, die unseren sehr festen Anforderungen standhalten konnten reaching orbit between and. Most spy satellites have very limited life spans—two to three months—and once 're! This spacecraft, most notably in terms of spacecraft size, '' said! 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