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.

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…

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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.

 

I wrote a long paper that encompasses all of this history for AIAA's SciTech conference a few years ago. It has more details and all the footnotes.

I had hoped that by now I could have done something similar about the GAMBIT and the shuttle. However, although there are hints that they studied putting GAMBIT on the shuttle, possibly on a pallet in the shuttle bay (i.e. not a deployed version), we don't have any details on those studies.
 
Maybe I will list more of that stuff.

I don't know how many articles I have written for TSR over 20 years, but it has to be over 300 of them. I wrote about 20 last year, at least 20 the year before, and in many previous years I was averaging about 40 a year. Not all of them were on reconnaissance topics. I wrote a lot about Apollo as well as space solar power, the shuttle, astronauts, etc. (Admittedly, some of them were also rewrites of earlier articles.) I've never compiled them all into a single place like a blog.
 
I don't know how many articles I have written for TSR over 20 years, but it has to be over 300 of them. I wrote about 20 last year, at least 20 the year before, and in many previous years I was averaging about 40 a year. Not all of them were on reconnaissance topics. I wrote a lot about Apollo as well as space solar power, the shuttle, astronauts, etc. (Admittedly, some of them were also rewrites of earlier articles.) I've never compiled them all into a single place like a blog.
You should buddy, you should....
 
You should buddy, you should....

I have lots of "shoulds" in my life. But my day job keeps getting in the way of my hobbies.

Next couple of articles are on the Defense Support Program satellites. That will be followed with something about a Program 989 signals intelligence satellite and something about lunar sample return (which is a surprise). Then maybe something about "Moonraker." Then maybe I'll get around to the interesting information I have about the relationship between the KH-11 and the Hubble Space Telescope...
 
Certainly sounds like you have enough for a book, maybe have a chat with Scott (Orionblamblam) about the ins and outs of publishing?
 
I have lots of "shoulds" in my life. But my day job keeps getting in the way of my hobbies.

Next couple of articles are on the Defense Support Program satellites. That will be followed with something about a Program 989 signals intelligence satellite and something about lunar sample return (which is a surprise). Then maybe something about "Moonraker." Then maybe I'll get around to the interesting information I have about the relationship between the KH-11 and the Hubble Space Telescope...
About both Moonraker (if you are referring to the 007's movie) and KH-11/HST relationship I think can help you.
Let me know it via e-mail.
 
About both Moonraker (if you are referring to the 007's movie) and KH-11/HST relationship I think can help you.
Let me know it via e-mail.

I just received the new La-La Land CD with the Moonraker soundtrack. Much better quality recording, more tracks (unreleased music), and some alternate versions of the Moonraker song. The latter is a bit odd (not good). There was also a Moonraker photobook that was produced in the past year with a lot of behind-the-scenes photos. Moonraker is not a good movie, but I thought the space shuttle scenes were incredible. I might write a short article mentioning these new releases.
 
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