KH-7 GAMBIT-1 / KH-8 GAMBIT-3 / KH-9 HEXAGON

Processing declassified spy satellite imagery of New York from 1979

Streamed live on Sep 5, 2024
Come join me and chat as I process some declassified spy satellites images live! ️

We georeference a KH-9 HEXAGON image of New York from 1979, and upload a KH-9 HEXAGON image of Saint Petersburg to my website.

The images processed in this livestream will be freely available for anyone to view and share.
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View: https://www.youtube.com/live/7H8dRg2kwf4
 
I recall Space Daily having an article a decade or two back about a “Monster satellite” of 9 tons or so to give video of Earth from geosynchronous orbit.

Geo-eye 3S or something…
 
Satellite reconnaissance and the Falklands War
by Dwayne A. Day
Monday, November 4, 2024

On June 8, 1982, Lieutenant Carlos Cachon was leading a flight of A-4 Skyhawk jets at low level over the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. Argentine forces had invaded the islands in April, prompting the United Kingdom to send a naval and amphibious force to retake them. The war had gotten bloody in May, with significant troop and ship losses on both sides. Now it was about to get even worse for the British.

According to Skyhawks Over the South Atlantic, by Santiago Rivas, Cachon and his fellow pilots crossed into and out of clouds and rain that hampered their visibility, then flew over a large number of British troops on the ground. Another pilot suddenly yelled “There are the ships!” and Cachon saw “two grey silhouettes” against the coast. He began his attack and released his bombs, which hit the center of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) Sir Galahad. Another pair of pilots hit the RFA Sir Tristram.

In total, 43 Welsh Guards and seven ship’s crew were killed in what became known to the British as “the darkest day of the fleet.” Sir Galahad burned and kept burning for days. Sir Tristram was less heavily damaged.
Falklands

On June 13, a HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite overflew the islands. The weather was usually bad for overhead reconnaissance during the war, but on this day portions of the islands were clear. The HEXAGON photographed broad swaths of the islands. The HEXAGON could cover immense amounts of territory in a single image. Five days after the two ships had been successfully attacked, Sir Galahad was still burning, its smoke plume visible in one of the satellite’s images. But the downside of HEXAGON’s impressive capabilities was that it achieved them using film, and that film sat inside the satellite until the reentry vehicle that carried it was ejected on June 15 and recovered over the North Pacific. Then it had to be recovered, transported to Rochester, New York for development, and sent to Washington for imagery interpretation. The war ended on June 14; by the time the film showing the burning Sir Galahad reached an interpreter’s desk on June 24, the war had been over for ten days.
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