Saturday, October 2, 1971

Corona 71

 1963-037A


The second KH-4A mission was also only partially successful. The first SRV, from Mission 1002-1, was recovered on Sep 27; the film showed severe light leaks. However according to the McDonald review the second SRV was `lost'. The CORONA internal program history records `commands failed - decoder failure in vehicle', and apparently the vehicle could not be reactivated after being placed in zombie mode. This implies that the second SRV was not separated from CORONA. After this the KH-4A series was postponed for several months, and the CORONA problem ran into trouble as nine months passed with only one successful flight.


KH-4A Mission 1002 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1963 Sep 23  2300  Launch by TAT Agena D  V Pad 2 
 2301  Castor sep (T+1:05)  
 2302  Thor MECO (T+2:27) 
 2302  Thor VECO (T+2:35) 
 2302  Thor sep (T+2:40) 
 2302  Agena burn (T+2:47) 
 2306  Agena MECO (T+6:50)  90.6 184 x 439 x 74.9 (VCR) 
1963 Sep 24  0230   90.63 161 x 441 x 74.9 (RAE) 
1963 Sep 24  0259   90.59 159 x 442 x 74.9 
1963 Sep 25  0309   90.52 172 x 428 x 74.9 
1963 Sep 26  2126   90.46 173 x 320 x 74.9 
1963 Sep 27  0056? Mission 1002-1 complete 
 0058:24 SRV-1 sep, deorbit rev 49 
 0058:34  Retro 
 0058:46  T/C sep 
 0107:33  Main parachute out 
 0134 SRV-1 recovered in mid air 
 0800?  Rev 54, activate zombie mode  
1963 Sep 29  0944   90.22 175 x 395 x 75.0 
1963 Oct 4  0020?  
 0300  Rev 165, failed to exit zombie mode  
1963 Oct 4   Mission 1002-2 failed to start 
  SRV-2 not separated 
1963 Oct 10  1900   88.64 150 x 282 x 74.9 (RAE) 
1963 Oct 11  2301   87.60 141 x 170 x 74.9 
1963 Oct 12  0200?  Reentered 

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