General Discussion > Historical Spaceflight
Satellite signals intelligence in the 1960s
Blackstar:
http://thespacereview.com/article/2985/1
That’ll do, DONKEY, that’ll do
by Dwayne Day
Monday, May 16, 2016
When the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program started in late 1963, it was going to be an incredibly complex machine: both a human space station and a collection of military experiments and equipment for performing an operational intelligence collection mission. The centerpiece of MOL was going to be a large optics system for conducting photoreconnaissance, code-named DORIAN. But MOL would also operate other intelligence equipment, including a signals intelligence system. Over the next several years, as MOL moved from concepts and studies to becoming blueprints and designs, its managers began to realize how complicated it was and sought to simplify and streamline the spacecraft. In 1965, they decided to eliminate a communications intelligence collection payload called DONKEY. But although the mule might have taken a kick, it didn’t roll over. DONKEY still found a way to fly, the only MOL system that did.
Blackstar:
I'll be writing more articles on American sigint satellites in the next few months. More on the Agena ferrets, AFTRACK, as well as the P-11 subsats.
edkyle99:
Interesting that that extra fairing part extended down past the regular payload shroud to the side of a portion of Agena itself. It seems to have extended over the Agena forward section, which housed guidance and other equipment. Perhaps DONKEY had systems mounted in the equipment racks available in that area.
- Ed Kyle
Blackstar:
I suspect that it may also have had to do with clearance issues--they mounted it on the side in order to fold out the dish far enough. I need to get a photo of the actual payload without fairing, but this thing was packed with antennas--four that folded out, plus probably up to four others on the front.
kevin-rf:
Good read. Sounds like an ideal system to boost to a molniya orbit.
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