1969-007A
KH-8 19 (GAMBIT 4319) was launched on 1969 Jan 22 by Titan IIIB Agena D from Vandenberg. It entered an orbit with an unusually high apogee of 1090 km, because the Agena D failed to shut down on time.
A debris object, 1969-07B, was tracked in a 130 x 694 km x 106.1 deg orbit on Jan 23; it may be a camera cover.
At the end of January an event `caused concern among policy makers in Washington' when the Kosmos-264 satellite made orbital manuevers and passed within 24 km of Mission 4319. There was some worry it was an ASAT, but in fact it was the second Zenit-4M/Rotor spy satellite, testing out its KDU orbit adjust engine.
The SRV was recovered on Feb 2. At this time the perigee was over 33N. A rev 161 reentry (as per the history) would require an ascending pass with deorbit at apogee and a long coast down which seems unlikely (or a descending pass Atlantic recovery, even more so). I suspect a problem with the rev numbering; the likely Feb 2 recovery time is instead around 2318 UTC on Feb 2 which I calculate as rev 165.
| KH-8 19 | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 Jan 22 | 1910 | Launch by Titan IIIB Agena D | V SLC4W |
| 1912? | Titan stage 1 sep | ||
| 1915? | Titan stage 2 sep | ||
| 1915? | Agena burn | ||
| 1920? | Agena MECO | ||
| 1969 Jan 23 | 1843 | 96.96 131 x 1094 x 106.2 | |
| 1968 Jan 28 | 0851 | 96.85 137 x 1078 x 106.1 | |
| 1969 Feb 1 | 0310 | 96.62 136 x 1056 x 106.1 | |
| 1969 Feb 2 | SRV rev 161? | ||
| 2314? | SRV deorbit | ||
| 1969 Feb 3 | Reentered | ||
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