NRO declassifies GAMBIT and HEXAGON spy sats |
NRO declassifies GAMBIT and HEXAGON spy sats |
Sep 18 2011, 12:35 PM
Post
#1
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1729 Joined: 3-August 06 From: 43° 35' 53" N 1° 26' 35" E Member No.: 1004 |
in the Earth observations forum... or sort of, it must be noted that yesterday the NRO declassified the KH-7 and -8 GAMBIT and KH-9 HEXAGON high resolution photographic spy sats of the 60s, 70s and 80s.
here you can find some pics of the "rolling stock-sized" KH-9 http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1568 and on the NRO sites you can find hundreds of declassified documents http://www.nro.gov/foia/declass/GAMBHEX.html unfortunately, all imagery from orbit seems to be redacted at this time |
|
|
Sep 18 2011, 08:48 PM
Post
#2
|
|
Member Group: Members Posts: 753 Joined: 23-October 04 From: Greensboro, NC USA Member No.: 103 |
An old friend told me once of visiting NPIC a long time ago and seeing one wall in a lobby decorated with a single HEXAGON photo which covered almost an entire country. You could see the overall mapping of the country from far away and walk up close to the wall and see airfields and individual airplanes in incredible hi-res.
-------------------- Jonathan Ward
Manning the LCC at http://www.apollolaunchcontrol.com |
|
|
Jul 10 2012, 07:34 AM
Post
#3
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1729 Joined: 3-August 06 From: 43° 35' 53" N 1° 26' 35" E Member No.: 1004 |
NRO has just declassified its experimental 1960s QUILL imaging radar spy satellite
http://www.nro.gov/foia/declass/QUILL.html see in particular the sample images in the QUILL Lecture Transcript and consider that they were taken 15 years before JPL's Seasat and 25 years before Magellan! |
|
|
Jul 10 2012, 03:38 PM
Post
#4
|
|
Member Group: Members Posts: 609 Joined: 23-February 07 From: Occasionally in Columbia, MD Member No.: 1764 |
NRO has just declassified its experimental 1960s QUILL imaging radar spy satellite ...... consider that they were taken 15 years before JPL's Seasat and 25 years before Magellan! Fascinating ! Don't forget there was radar sounding on Apollo 15 (which I think used similar curved mirrors to do the SAR processing optically), and radar scatterometry from orbit on Skylab. But QUILL predates those by almost a decade. A quick look at the material (some rather redacted) suggests most UMSFers will be interested in the document 22, the testing report by Goodyear, the radar instrument contractor http://www.nro.gov/foia/declass/QUILL/22.%...-%20Testing.PDF which has many example images. Unfortunately the reproduction quality is rather poor, but you can see that the radar worked pretty well... |
|
|
Jul 10 2012, 04:15 PM
Post
#5
|
|
Member Group: Members Posts: 609 Joined: 23-February 07 From: Occasionally in Columbia, MD Member No.: 1764 |
a quick summary slide with example image
Attached File(s)
|
|
|
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 28th March 2024 - 02:32 PM |
RULES AND GUIDELINES Please read the Forum Rules and Guidelines before posting. IMAGE COPYRIGHT |
OPINIONS AND MODERATION Opinions expressed on UnmannedSpaceflight.com are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of UnmannedSpaceflight.com or The Planetary Society. The all-volunteer UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderation team is wholly independent of The Planetary Society. The Planetary Society has no influence over decisions made by the UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderators. |
SUPPORT THE FORUM Unmannedspaceflight.com is funded by the Planetary Society. Please consider supporting our work and many other projects by donating to the Society or becoming a member. |