Author Topic: KH-7 GAMBIT Reconnaissance Satellite  (Read 20855 times)

Online Blackstar

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KH-7 GAMBIT Reconnaissance Satellite
« on: 09/17/2011 07:13 pm »
Better photos, and cutaways, to follow.

Offline robertross

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Re: KH-7 GAMBIT Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #1 on: 09/17/2011 07:16 pm »
Better photos, and cutaways, to follow.

woot!

Thanks for posting Sir. I was thinking about how the day's been going for those attending.

Online Blackstar

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Re: KH-7 GAMBIT Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #2 on: 09/17/2011 07:22 pm »

Online Blackstar

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Re: KH-7 GAMBIT Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #3 on: 09/17/2011 07:38 pm »
Here is a cutaway.

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Re: KH-7 GAMBIT Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #4 on: 09/17/2011 08:02 pm »
Here it is.

Offline simonbp

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Re: KH-7 GAMBIT Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #5 on: 09/18/2011 11:37 pm »
Here is a cutaway.

Huh; it looks like there is a Maksutov-style spherical corrector lens between the first diagonal mirror and the primary at the rear. This make perfect sense from an imaging point of view (it's effectively a Maksutov-Newtonian, one of the preferred designs for small imaging telescopes), but that corrector lens must have been quite massive.

One distinct advantage, though, would be that both the primary mirror and the corrector lens would be spherical, which is much, much easier to grind than the parabolas and hyperbolas of more advanced designs. Also, Maksutov optics can be quite easily fixed in place (no delicate spiders), meaning they can take a much wider range of accelerations (i.e. during a rocket launch).
« Last Edit: 09/18/2011 11:42 pm by simonbp »

Online Blackstar

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Re: KH-7 GAMBIT Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #6 on: 09/30/2011 04:06 pm »
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20110930/NEWS01/109300348/Veil-secrecy-lifted-Kodak-spy-satellite-work?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Local

Veil of secrecy lifted on Kodak spy satellite work

During the hard frost of the Cold War, a time when people were building fallout shelters in their basements, an extensive team of people from what was then a division of Eastman Kodak Co. worked on spy satellite programs that may have helped prevent a third world war.

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Re: KH-7 GAMBIT Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #7 on: 01/23/2012 02:39 pm »
Here is one volume of a photo-interpretation report from GAMBIT mission 4030, in July 1966.

Warning: big file.

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Re: KH-7 GAMBIT Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #8 on: 01/23/2012 02:40 pm »
Here is one volume of a photo-interpretation report from GAMBIT mission 4036 in February 1967.

Warning: big file.

Offline kevin-rf

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Re: KH-7 GAMBIT Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #9 on: 01/23/2012 03:25 pm »
Thanks, what percentage is pools of black ink?
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Online Blackstar

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Re: KH-7 GAMBIT Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #10 on: 01/23/2012 03:35 pm »
Thanks, what percentage is pools of black ink?

They didn't use the black out approach to deletions. They just used blank boxes, which is far easier on your toner cartridge. But look for yourself.

By the way, there are TONS of these reports from CORONA that are available, fewer for GAMBIT. After you start looking at this stuff you get a sense of just how much material was produced by each reconnaissance flight. For later CORONA missions, if you printed out all the reports for a mission, you would end up with a stack a couple of feet high. No kidding.

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Re: KH-7 GAMBIT Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #11 on: 01/26/2012 06:47 pm »
http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123287508

Three formerly classified reconnaissance satellites now on display at National Museum USAF

by Rob Bardua
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force

1/26/2012 - DAYTON, Ohio -- Military, government and industry officials gathered today to officially place three formerly classified reconnaissance satellites on public display in the Cold War Gallery at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.


Online Blackstar

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Re: KH-7 GAMBIT Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #12 on: 01/27/2012 02:23 am »

Online Blackstar

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Re: KH-7 GAMBIT Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #13 on: 01/27/2012 02:26 am »

Online Blackstar

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Re: KH-7 GAMBIT Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #14 on: 01/27/2012 02:27 am »

Offline ChileVerde

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Re: KH-7 GAMBIT Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #15 on: 01/28/2012 12:21 pm »

Speaking of Sary Shagan, Google Earth has a bunch of Panoramio dots of the former Soviet facilities there, and the place is absolutely trashed.  It almost looks as if the Soviets deliberately destroyed many of the buildings when they left.
"I can’t tell you which asteroid, but there will be one in 2025," Bolden asserted.

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Re: KH-7 GAMBIT Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #16 on: 02/26/2012 08:46 pm »
KH-7 GAMBIT reconnaissance satellite at the USAF Museum.

Online Blackstar

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Re: KH-7 GAMBIT Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #17 on: 05/13/2012 10:56 pm »
Has anybody seen any mention in the various GAMBIT histories of changes in the launch tower configuration at Vandenberg leading to acoustic damage to the spacecraft that caused malfunctions in flight?

Somebody told me about this years ago, but I don't recall seeing any reference to it in the histories. I'm trying to help somebody who is writing an article about how changes to a launch pad or spacecraft led to failures that were never predicted.

Offline Nicolas PILLET

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Re: KH-7 GAMBIT Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #18 on: 08/05/2013 05:20 pm »
I don't understand where are located the two re-entry capsules on KH-7...

Someone could explain ?
Nicolas PILLET
Kosmonavtika : The French site on Russian Space

Online Blackstar

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Re: KH-7 GAMBIT Reconnaissance Satellite
« Reply #19 on: 08/05/2013 06:07 pm »
I don't understand where are located the two re-entry capsules on KH-7...

Someone could explain ?

KH-7, or GAMBIT-1, had only a single reentry vehicle. You can see it in the above image. It is the gray thing at left.

The first GAMBIT-3s had only a single reentry vehicle. Eventually they started mounting two of them, one behind the other, just like on the KH-4A and 4B models of CORONA.

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