1969-026A
KH-4A Mission 1050 was launched on 1969 Mar 19 by Thorad Agena D from Vandenberg. The flight was terminated early due to Agena problems and the spacecraft reentered after only 4 days. The yaw thruster system stuck open and put the vehicle in a yaw spin at half a degree per second on rev 22. The SRVs were recovered rapidly by the Lifeboat system after two and one day missions. Despite the smearing of the images due to the attitude problem, 35 new missile launch sites were identified. The spacecraft may have observed the Soviet-Chinese border to monitor the military activity then underway.
| KH-4A Mission 1050 | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 Mar 19 | 2138 | Launch by LTTAT Agena D | V SLC3W |
| 2139 | Launch (PER) | ||
| 2139 | Castor sep | ||
| 2141 | Thor sep | ||
| 2142 | Agena burn | ||
| 2146 | Agena MECO | ||
| 2313? | Subsatellite ejected | ||
| DMU burn 1 rev 2, to nominal orbit | |||
| 1969 Mar 20 | 0559 | 88.64 164 x 250 x 83.0 | |
| DMU burn 2 rev 14 | |||
| 1969 Mar 20 | Agena rotational malfunction rev 22 | ||
| 1748 | 88.57 172 x 234 x 83.0 | ||
| 1917 | 88.74 178 x 247 x 83.0 | ||
| 1969 Mar 21 | 1700 | 88.73 179 x 241 x 83.0 (RAE) | |
| 1729 | 88.67 177 x 240 x 83.0 | ||
| 2026 | 88.57 173 x 234 x 83.0 | ||
| 1969 Mar 21 | 2354:44 | S+0:00 SRV-1 sep | |
| 2354:54 | S+0:10 Retro | ||
| 2355:06 | S+0:22 Thrust cone sep | ||
| 1969 Mar 22 | 0003:03 | S+8:19 Para cover off | |
| S+8:20 Drogue chute | |||
| 0003:14 | S+8:30 Main chute | ||
| 0032 | SRV-1 recovered rev 34 | ||
| 0930 | Bad elements? | 88.20 185 x 185 x 83.0 | |
| 2329? | Fairing sep | ||
| 2330:22 | S+0:00 SRV-2 sep | ||
| 2330:32 | S+0:10 Retro | ||
| 2330:43 | S+0:21 Thrust cone sep | ||
| S+8:10 Para cover off | |||
| 2338:42 | S+8:11 Drogue chute | ||
| S+8:20 Main chute | |||
| 1969 Mar 23 | 0004 | SRV-2 recovered rev 50 | |
| 0618 | 87.99 155 x 195 x 82.0 | ||
| 1802 | 87.95 158 x 187 x 82.0 | ||
| 1969 Mar 24 | 0543 | 87.29 116 x 164 x 83.0 | |
| 1969 Mar 24 | 1220 | Reentered | |
