Discoverer 20

 1961-005A

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The first ARGON mission was 9014A, launched on 1961 Feb 17. The ARGON camera failed and due to an on board malfunction in the program timer the capsule was ejected half an orbit away from the Pacific Ocean target area. Some sources suggested it possibly reentered over the Indian Ocean, but NRO program summary records carry the comment `still in space', suggesting that the three debris objects are the SRV pieces. The Agena flight history also records that the capsule ended up in a higher orbit. On Mar 2, a message to the Pentagon reported that the capsule separated between rev 32 and 63.

Mass of satellite 1104 was 1048 kg on orbit.

KH-5 Mission 9014A
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1961 Feb 17	2025	Launch by Thor Agena B	V
	2027	Thor MECO (T+2:28)
	2027	Thor VECO (T+2:38)
	2027	Thor sep (T+2:43)
	2028	Agena burn (T+3:43)
	2032	Agena cutoff (T+7:51)
			325 x 767 x ? (VCR)
			288 x 786 x 80.91 (RAE)
1961 Feb 17		Camera failed
1961 Feb 18	0525		95.35 284 x 787 x 80.91
1961 Feb 18		Program timer failed temporarily
1961 Feb 21	2035?	SRV ejected (Epsilon 4?)	395 x 790 x 80.9
		Thrust cone sep (Epsilon 2?)	283 x 734 x 80.9
		Heat shield sep (Epsilon 3?)	283 x 745 x 80.9
1961 Feb 25	0244		95.31 284 x 783 x 80.91
1961 Mar 30	2029		95.08 284 x 760 x 80.9
1961 Apr 2		Object Epsilon 2 reentered
1961 Apr 20		Object Epsilon 3 reentered
1961 May 8	1842		94.85 284 x 738 x 80.91
1961 Jun 30	0946		94.46 284 x 701 x 80.91
1961 Sep 4	1324		94.05 284 x 661 x 80.91
1961 Oct 31		Object Epsilon 4 (SRV?) reentered
1962 Jan 1	1032		92.90 284 x 549 x 80.91
1962 Mar 5	0200		92.28 269 x 503 x 80.84
1962 Apr 24			92.3 277 x 491 x 80.8 (SATCAT)
1962 Jun 29	0323		90.29 239 x 338 x 80.84
1962 Jul 25	1652		88.58 204 x 204 x 80.83
1962 Jul 28		CORONA/Agena reentered

Payload:

• Agena 1104

• KH-5 ARGON camera A-1

• Stellar camera

• Satellite Recovery Vehicle, Mission 9014A

• TOD-8 APL Transit-on-Discoverer

• Dosimeters