Now this is a really interesting chart. Note that under the satellites category, there are four projects that are deleted. They have operational dates (top to bottom) of 1966, 1968, 1967, and 1969.So what are they? Considering that "Titan III" is listed as operational around 1966, that must refer to the KH-8 GAMBIT (updated version of the KH-7, which is listed as "Atlas-Agena-OCV" on the chart). I am guessing that the 1968 entry is for the KH-9 HEXAGON, and the 1969 entry is for the KH-10 DORIAN/MOL.So what are the other two?
1-This might be somewhat off-topic, but how does GOPSS (Geodetic Optical Photographic Satellite System study from 1966) fit into the overall picture? Could this have been the project expected to be operational by 1967? The study started as an ARGON follow-up around 1963, with the "Final Report" with the feasibility study in 1966 - see SNIP2-My apologies in case GOPSS should already have been covered in another thread.
Quote from: hoku on 12/22/2010 01:18 am1-This might be somewhat off-topic, but how does GOPSS (Geodetic Optical Photographic Satellite System study from 1966) fit into the overall picture?SNIPThis program didn't go anywhere. I don't totally remember the specifics, but I think this was a proposal that was largely overtaken by the development of the DISIC mapping camera on the KH-4B, which was probably also incorporated into the KH-8 and maybe the later KH-7.<snip>Maybe this GOPSS camera became the KH-9 mapping camera and then eventually NASA's LFT. Anybody with more info on that latter program, please let me know.I'll have to think about it.
1-This might be somewhat off-topic, but how does GOPSS (Geodetic Optical Photographic Satellite System study from 1966) fit into the overall picture?SNIP
Thanks for your insights. I found a paragraph in Perry's History Vol I (page 135), where he states that the dedicated mapping satellite was favored by the Army Mapping Service, who didn't want to yield control to NRO, and that the project (code named "Vault/Tomas") later "disappeared" (i.e. "killed", not going "black", I presume). Perry also confirms that the stellar-indexing camera DISIC gave CORONA a mapping capability "somewhat superior" to ARGON.
I'm referring to a book called "The CORONA Story."I'm not familiar with what your are referring to on Amazon Prime.UPDATE: I just looked. The video on Amazon Prime is a documentary produced by the CIA. There are similar ones for GAMBIT and HEXAGON, although those have deletions (mostly imagery was deleted). All of the documentaries are very good. It's too bad the CORONA one was not restored. It includes a couple of guys out at SLC-2 talking about the Discoverer 1 launch, saying that although it was reported to be in orbit, they later concluded it probably crashed in Antarctica. One guy says that the launch team at Vandenberg never thought it reached orbit. I interviewed Frank Buzard about that and got the story. I've written about that.
National Reconnaissance Office 14h Facebook#OTD #NROat60 #AboveandBeyond On this day in 1984, NRO used a Titan IIIB to launch the last Gambit-3, Mission #54, which operated for over 116 days.