Author Topic: KH-9 HEXAGON Reconnaissance Satellite  (Read 356884 times)

Offline rguser

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Re: KH-9 HEXAGON Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #240 on: 10/18/2012 09:04 am »
is it possible there were also variants of the KH-9 that haven't been disclosed yet?

Not sure what you mean by this. If you mean other ones that flew, the answer is no. There's a lot of material that has been declassified, including the histories of the USAF group that did the recovery of the reentry vehicles (and I'll admit that I have not looked at those at all), and there's no indication of other spacecraft that ejected reentry vehicles that have not been declassified.

As for variants of the KH-9, they have only released a small number of documents. It is still somewhat murky trying to figure out what upgrades were made and when. And we still don't know if they applied anything other than a KH-9 designation to the spacecraft (in other words, was there a KH-9A, KH-9B? My suspicion is no). But I think it is fair to say that we now have about 95+% of the program declassified. There are very few mysteries left.

It would appear that early in the HEXAGON program (1973) a study was started that would make the Block IV HEXAGON (1219) the first major redesign of the HEXAGON system.  The study would examine a new camera with a faster F/2.0 aperture and a slower film transport that could eliminate the rewind function of the original HEXAGON.  See the attached excerpt from Perry's Vol. 3B file.  Perry's Vol. 3B does not indicate if the new camera was made or not.

Offline Blackstar

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Re: KH-9 HEXAGON Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #241 on: 10/18/2012 12:45 pm »
I have something that indicates that a major upgrade to the Block III involved the electronics. They developed a new fault tolerant system that gave them more ability to deal with a camera problem/failure. I don't have a lot of details on it, and it's rather obscure (and kind of boring), but apparently it was a significant electronics upgrade.

Offline Star One

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Re: KH-9 HEXAGON Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #242 on: 10/18/2012 08:56 pm »
I have something that indicates that a major upgrade to the Block III involved the electronics. They developed a new fault tolerant system that gave them more ability to deal with a camera problem/failure. I don't have a lot of details on it, and it's rather obscure (and kind of boring), but apparently it was a significant electronics upgrade.

Did this also result in any particular increase in the on orbit lifetime of the vehicle, as from looking at the respective on orbit operation times of the vehicles (from launch to decay) this seems to have steadily increased across its operational time frame? 
« Last Edit: 10/18/2012 09:05 pm by Star One »

Offline Blackstar

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Re: KH-9 HEXAGON Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #243 on: 10/18/2012 11:30 pm »
I don't know if there were other modifications that increased the on-orbit lifetime. The upgrade that I have information about was aimed at camera control and safety (safety defined as the ability to keep operating even after something goes wrong).

Offline rguser

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Re: KH-9 HEXAGON Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #244 on: 10/23/2012 09:17 am »
Does anyone have any information on a possible version identification or contract term used by Perkin-Elmer called "Redirection" in addition to the Block IDs?  What could "Redirection" refer to?  I am referring to the following three quotes from page 172 in the Perkin-Elmer History file.

"...and the program was redirected for a second time."

"The Hexagon program was 10 years old and in full bloom.  S3 and the large looper were incorporated into the sensor subsystem and Redirection III stretched out the program to one flight a year of six months' duration."

"In 1978 both Redirection IV and Block IV were negotiated which further extended the program by two additional vehicles and four additional years."


Offline Jester

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Re: KH-9 HEXAGON Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #245 on: 10/23/2012 10:38 am »
as well as color photos of a small NASA transport aircraft rigged for satellite recovery tests, ca 1978.


Interesting, which one ? C-119 ?

Offline Jim

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Re: KH-9 HEXAGON Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #246 on: 10/23/2012 11:57 am »
Does anyone have any information on a possible version identification or contract term used by Perkin-Elmer called "Redirection" in addition to the Block IDs?  What could "Redirection" refer to?  I am referring to the following three quotes from page 172 in the Perkin-Elmer History file.

"...and the program was redirected for a second time."

"The Hexagon program was 10 years old and in full bloom.  S3 and the large looper were incorporated into the sensor subsystem and Redirection III stretched out the program to one flight a year of six months' duration."

"In 1978 both Redirection IV and Block IV were negotiated which further extended the program by two additional vehicles and four additional years."



Isn't self explanatory?  "Redirection" is when the customer changed the contract terms, specifically contract duration and number of articles.  It does mean the articles themselves were changed.

Offline Blackstar

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Re: KH-9 HEXAGON Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #247 on: 10/23/2012 12:16 pm »
as well as color photos of a small NASA transport aircraft rigged for satellite recovery tests, ca 1978.


Interesting, which one ? C-119 ?

No, not a C-119. I doubt that any of them were flying in the 70s. It looked something like this C-23. But it was rather boxy. It's a civilian aircraft and the kind of thing used on very small routes to carry cargo. I'd know it if I saw a picture, but haven't found it yet.


Offline arachnitect

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Re: KH-9 HEXAGON Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #248 on: 10/23/2012 05:38 pm »
as well as color photos of a small NASA transport aircraft rigged for satellite recovery tests, ca 1978.


Interesting, which one ? C-119 ?

No, not a C-119. I doubt that any of them were flying in the 70s. It looked something like this C-23. But it was rather boxy. It's a civilian aircraft and the kind of thing used on very small routes to carry cargo. I'd know it if I saw a picture, but haven't found it yet.



This Guy? (Short SC7)

Was at Wallops apparently.

http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=30129


Offline Blackstar

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Re: KH-9 HEXAGON Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #249 on: 10/23/2012 06:41 pm »
That's it. Except that the rear fuselage was open. There was a dented KH-9 bucket mounted horizontally in there, and some rigging. Several photos of that. There was also a photo of about four guys standing in front of the plane. Now these were just a handful of photos, no description, but there might have been a description of what they were doing somewhere else and I did not see it.

My guess is that they were testing out a new winch or braking system. When the C-130 snagged the parachute lines, the cable was suddenly hooked onto a very heavy object. The cable played out and had to be slowed. At least early on they did this manually, with the crew chief with his hand on a braking mechanism to slow it down as it played out. Once they stopped it, he could then winch it in. They might have eventually gone to an automatic system.


Offline kevin-rf

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Re: KH-9 HEXAGON Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #250 on: 10/23/2012 06:53 pm »
Geeze, don't get your fingers caught in that ... Ouch, kinda like fishing except that sardine really was a whopper!
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It's your med's!

Offline Blackstar

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Re: KH-9 HEXAGON Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #251 on: 10/23/2012 06:55 pm »
Geeze, don't get your fingers caught in that ... Ouch, kinda like fishing except that sardine really was a whopper!

Absolutely. Imagine being in the back of that C-130. The rear fuselage is open and you're trailing the poles and the cable with the hooks. When it catches the chute, that cable plays out very fast, and then has to be winched in. If you're not careful, there are plenty of opportunities to get smacked by that cable.

Offline Archibald

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Re: KH-9 HEXAGON Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #252 on: 10/24/2012 08:00 am »
Indeed. It may be gory, Wes Craven or Saw style...
« Last Edit: 10/24/2012 08:00 am by Archibald »
Han shot first and Gwynne Shotwell !

Offline Jester

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Re: KH-9 HEXAGON Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #253 on: 10/24/2012 09:40 am »
That's it. Except that the rear fuselage was open. There was a dented KH-9 bucket mounted horizontally in there, and some rigging. Several photos of that. There was also a photo of about four guys standing in front of the plane. Now these were just a handful of photos, no description, but there might have been a description of what they were doing somewhere else and I did not see it.

My guess is that they were testing out a new winch or braking system. When the C-130 snagged the parachute lines, the cable was suddenly hooked onto a very heavy object. The cable played out and had to be slowed. At least early on they did this manually, with the crew chief with his hand on a braking mechanism to slow it down as it played out. Once they stopped it, he could then winch it in. They might have eventually gone to an automatic system.


Document not available on NTRS:
Evaluation and operation of Wallops Flight Center Mid-Air Retrieval System on a Skyvan aircraft                                            

A Mid-Air Retrieval System (MARS) for parachute-borne payloads has been  evaluated and made operational at Wallops Flight Center. The evaluation  indicated that the Skyvan is a near-optimum aerial retrieval platform  from the standpoints of safety, reliability and economy. The system is  presently capable of retrieving parachute-borne payloads launched by  rockets and balloons weighing from 10 to 325 pounds as far as 250 n mi  from Wallops. Its payload retrieval capability could be increased to as  much as 1000 pounds.                                            

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19760052294&hterms=Mid-Air+Retrieval+System+MARS&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2520matchallpartial%2520%26Ntk%3DAll%26N%3D0%26Ntt%3DMid-Air%2520Retrieval%2520System%2520%28MARS%29


Offline Jester

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Re: KH-9 HEXAGON Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #254 on: 10/24/2012 09:54 am »
Interesting cover ?:

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19790080270_1979080270.pdf

Quote
Four kinds of rockets--two-stage Nike Orion,
single-stage Orion, Super Arcas and Super Loki--will
be used to carry the ozone measuring instruments into
the stratosphere. The rocket flights will coincide
with orbiting satellite overpasses of Wallops for comparison
of the rocket measurements with those of the
satellites. Meteorological rockets and balloons, as
well as ground based equipment, also will be collecting
ozone data.
New ground measuring techniques to determine the
distribution of ozone in the stratosphere will be
tested .
Several of the rocket payloads will be recovered
in mid-air by the Wallops Skyvan aircraft.
« Last Edit: 10/24/2012 09:54 am by Jester »

Offline Jester

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Re: KH-9 HEXAGON Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #255 on: 10/24/2012 10:07 am »
and a little more info on the MARS system here:

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19810015461_1981015461.pdf

PDF Page 10/11
« Last Edit: 10/24/2012 10:07 am by Jester »

Offline Blackstar

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Re: KH-9 HEXAGON Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #256 on: 10/24/2012 02:55 pm »
Indeed. It may be gory, Wes Craven or Saw style...

I think Mythbusters did a segment on whether or not a cable could cut a person in half and determined that it cannot.  I never really thought it could, because it's just not sharp enough (and a cable small enough would lack the mass). You could get a very nasty blunt force trauma, however, as well as a bad laceration.

Fred Durant, a name some of you may recognize from early space history, was struck by an arrestor cable on one of the Great Lakes aircraft carriers during WWII. It put him in the hospital for quite awhile, but obviously did not kill him. (I interviewed him years ago about his history. Gotta locate that tape...)

Offline Blackstar

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Re: KH-9 HEXAGON Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #257 on: 10/24/2012 02:58 pm »
Document not available on NTRS:
Evaluation and operation of Wallops Flight Center Mid-Air Retrieval System on a Skyvan aircraft                                      

Well I'll be a monkey's uncle!

I'm pretty sure that the image I saw showed a KH-9 size (Mk VIII) bucket inside the back of that little plane. I honestly have a hard time imagining how they could do that. There wasn't much room, and you do need people to man-handle the thing onto the plane after you catch it. And how would that plane react to grabbing so much mass?

Offline Blackstar

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Re: KH-9 HEXAGON Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #258 on: 10/29/2012 04:31 am »
Missed this earlier in the week:

http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2012/10/hexagon_imagery.html

Intelligence Imagery Set to be Disclosed in 2013

October 22nd, 2012 by Steven Aftergood

A massive quantity of historical intelligence satellite imagery from the KH-9 HEXAGON program is being declassified and will be made public in a series of releases that are scheduled over the coming year, intelligence community officials say.

“The notable challenges to this effort are the sheer volume of imagery and the logistics involved in cataloging the imagery and moving it to archive,” Mr. Birmingham told Secrecy News.

“For context, and to grasp the scope of the project, the KH-9/HEXAGON system provided coverage over hundreds of millions of square miles of territory during its 19 successful missions spanning 1971-1984.  It is a daunting issue to address declassification of the program specifics associated with an obsolete system such as the KH-9, which involves the declassification of huge volumes of intelligence information gathered on thousands of targets worldwide during a 13 year time period.”

Offline Jester

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Re: KH-9 HEXAGON Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #259 on: 10/29/2012 05:16 pm »
Nice one,

hoping for a google earth overlay of those images...
« Last Edit: 10/29/2012 05:17 pm by Jester »

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