1964-022A
At the time of the 1995 declassification, CIA revealed a dramatic episode. Flight 78 (CORONA KH-4A mission 1005) was launched on Apr 27, 1964, but when the command to recover SRV-1 was sent from Vandenberg on Apr 30, nothing happened. Repeated attempts to command the separation failed, and on May 19 the CORONA fell silent. The mission had already been compromised by the failure of the two camera doors to eject on ascent. A total of 26 unsuccessful attempts to send recovery commands were made up to rev 365. The satellite reentered early on May 26 over southwestern Venezuela. On Jul 7 farm workers in La Fria found the battered remains of SRV-1, and on Aug 1 the news reached the US Embassy. According to a USAF source,
A team of CORONA officers, ostensibly representing USAF, flew to Caracas to recover the remains. The capsule was lugged out by peasants to a point where the Venezuelan Defense Ministry could pick it up for flight to Caracas. There the CORONA officers bought the crumpled bucket from the Venezuelan government and quietly dismissed the event as an unimportant NASA space experiment gone awry.
The film was `well cooked'. One telex notes possible sightings of the entry of the second SRV 200 miles northeast of the first but there is no indication anything was found.
Mission 1005 was also the last flight of Program 162. The CORONA program was given a new unclassified Program number, apparently in an attempt to fool people into thinking the program had been concluded. The change in Program number seems to have had no relation to any actual change in the CORONA project.
Orbital mass of mission 1005 was 1623 kg. The flight carried a transmitter to investigate radio transmission properties of the ionosphere, and recovery packs to study radiation environment effects which might affect the film quality.
| KH-4A Mission 1005 | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 Apr 27 | 2323:43 | Launch by TA Thor Agena D | V Pad 4 |
| T+0:41 SRM burnout | |||
| 2324 | Castor sep (T+1:05) | ||
| 2325 | Thor MECO (T+2:25) | ||
| 2325 | Thor VECO (T+2:35) | ||
| 2325 | Thor sep (T+2:40) | ||
| 2325 | Agena burn (T+2:47) | ||
| 2329 | Agena MECO (T+6:47) | 90.9 183 x 465 x 79.9 (VCR) | |
| 1964 Apr 27 | 2250 | 90.50 157 x 440 x 79.84 | |
| 1964 Apr 28 | 2003 | 90.77 177 x 447 x 80.0 | |
| 1964 Apr 29 | 0940 | 90.76 173 x 450 x 80.0 | |
| 1964 Apr 30 | 2234 | SRV-1 failed to separate, rev 47D | |
| 1964 May 1 | 0101 | 90.73 175 x 445 x 79.9 | |
| 1964 May 1 | 0230 | 90.77 178 x 446 x 79.9 (RAE) | |
| 1964 May 1 | 2240 | Repeat recovery attempt rev 63D | |
| 1964 May 2 | 2257 | Lifeboat rec attempt rev 79D | |
| 1964 May 3 | 2308 | Lifeboat mode 2 attempt rev 95S | |
| 1964 May 14 | 2330s | Repeat recovery attempt | |
| 1964 May 15 | 0929 | 89.62 167 x 344 x 79.9 | |
| 1964 May 15 | 2330s | Repeat recovery attempt | |
| 1965 May 19 | Last telemetry | ||
| 1964 May 20 | 1950 | Last recovery attempt rev 365S | |
| 1964 May 24 | 1652 | 88.44 162 x 232 x 79.9 | |
| 1964 May 26 | 0404? | Reentered over Venezuela 8N 67W | |
| 0406 | Five reentering objects seen in Maracaibo | ||
| 0412 | Radar sightings of debris seen by NJ Spadats station | ||
| 0414? | Impact near La Fria, Venezuela | ||
No comments:
Post a Comment