Gambit-3 38

  1973-028A

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KH-8 Mission 4038 was launched on 1973 May 16 by Titan 23B Agena D from Vandenberg on a 28 day mission. At the last minute a new target was added to the mission: imaging the Skylab space station, which had been damaged during launch. This required orienting the GAMBIT at an attitude for which it had not been designed, but the operation was successful and the recovered film provided key information for the Skylab repair crew. The first SRV was recovered 9 days earlier than scheduled to give NASA timely information.

KH-8 38
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1973 May 16	1640	Launch by Titan 3B Agena D	V SLC4W
	1642	Titan stage 1 sep
	1645	Titan stage 2 sep
	1645	Agena burn
	1650?	Agena MECO
			89.4 136 x 352 x 110.5
1973 May 20?		Imaged Skylab
1973 May 21			89.75 135 x 389 x 100.5
	2050?	SRV-1 ejected
	2101	SRV-1 mid-air recovery
1973 May 22		Orbit raise
1973 May 29			89.71 132 x 387 x 110.5
1973 May 31		Orbit raise	89.88 132 x 404 x 110.5
1973 Jun 4		Orbit raise	89.78 134 x 393 x110.5
1973 Jun 6			136 x 371 x 110.5
1973 Jun 6	Orbit raise	89.81 141 x 389 x 110.5
1973 Jun 12			89.74 140 x 382 x 110.5
1973 Jun 13			89.75 139 x 384 x 110.5
1973 Jun 13	2236?	SRV-2 recovered
1973 Jun 13		Reentered after 28d