1964-087A
The launch on Dec 21, 1964 was particularly mysterious. Its low orbit led previous analysts to lump it with the CORONA missions, but the orbit was not quite consistent with that assumption, and it was not included in the official list of 145 bona fide CORONA flights.
In 1995 Maj-Gen David Bradburn, former director of USAF Special Projects, reported at a USAF Space History conference that this launch was the first he was in charge of. Minutes before launch, a hold was called because of an approaching train on the line through Vandenberg. However, soon after it was reported that the train had been held up further up the line, and the go was given to resume the count. Washington got two messages in quick succession: `Holding for train' and `Launch!' - and Bradburn got a reputation as the man who launched over the train.
The Vandenberg launch report and launch photo confirm that one SRV was carried and that the orbit attained was close to the one planned. Bradburn stated that the spacecraft operated for four days and completed its mission successfully. He hinted that a couple of further vehicles in the series were cancelled as unneccessary.
The launch was carried out under Program 698BK, which also included the Ferret and NRL multiple launches.
So what was FTV 2355? Clearly it was an experimental rather than an operational mission. The following possibilities came to mind:
- An NSA electronic intelligence mission to characterize some kind of radio frequency interference or propagation problem. The altitude seems a little low for this, and the recoverable capsule argues against it.
- A test of an improved camera for a non-CORONA program, such as KH-7.
- A USAF Program 461 radiometric mission, to provide infrared radiometry data for MIDAS early warning satellites. This was one of the most likely options, but the declassified SAMSO histories of MIDAS do not mention such a mission.
The fact that FTV 2355 was flown under Program 698BK and not Program 241 suggested to me that this was a USAF-sponsored mission rather than a CIA one.
Dwayne Day solved the problem, finding out that the mission was codenamed QUILL and was a test of an active radar (SAR, synthetic aperture radar), based on work done by the University of Michigan's Environmental Research Institute.
The radar data were recorded on tape and returned to Earth via the SRV. The mission was managed by the Air Force (NRO Program A). It was also known as P-40 (possibly Program 40).
In 2012 the program was declassified. It was also known as P-40. The KP-II SAR unit was a modified version of Goodyear's AN/UPQ-102 aircraft-borne pulsed Doppler system with a 0.06 x 0.6 x 4.6m 9.6 GHz SAR antenna flush with the Agena body. The battery powered system was planned for a 4 day mission, and the radar operated on 14 passes over the US (NRO was worried that operating an active radar over the USSR would alert the Soviets). The data was both written to tape for recovery and sent on a UHF data link during ground station pases. The data reached 2.3 meter resolution. QUILL used a Mark VA recovery vehicle, S/N 588, with a TE-236A retro. The TE-236A has a mass of 28 kg full 10 kg dry with an Isp of 260s, burn time of 10s, and DeltaV of 381 m/s.
The first part of the Hawaii pass data with recovery timeline on LMSC Vol 3, page 4-12 appears to be in error by 1000 seconds (separation at 72356s) versus the timeline of page 7-5 (separation at 73356s) which seems to match the orbital data much better.
On insertion Agena 2355 yawed 180 deg to fly tail first. The 126 kg difference between MECO and 'On Orbit' is presumably post-MECO vernier adjustments.
The payload was commanded via the Vandenberg (VTS) and New Hampshire (NHS) tracking stations. Sunnyvale controlled the spacecraft.
| FTV 2355 | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 Dec 21 | 1908:56 | Thor SLV-2A Agena D | V 75-1 Pad 1 |
| 1910:01 | Castor sep (T+1:05) | ||
| 1911:26 | Thor MECO (T+2:30) | ||
| 1911:35 | Thor VECO (T+2:39) | ||
| 1911? | SAR fairing separation | ||
| 1911:43 | Thor sep (T+2:47) | ||
| 1912:07 | Agena burn (T+3:11) | ||
| 1916:08 | Agena MECO (T+7:12) | 89.56 244 x 293 x 70.11 (VCR) | |
| 2306 | 89.54 226 x 277 x 70.1 | ||
| 1964 Dec 22 | 0644 | First radar operation | |
| 1964 Dec 22 | 2259 | 89.51 236 x 263 x 70.1 | |
| 1964 Dec 23 | Rev 33 , ejected and recovered | ||
| 2005 | Over 76E 48N northbound | ||
| 2019? | Pitch down | ||
| 2022 | Over 160W 52N southbound | ||
| 2022:36 | SRV sep | ||
| S+10s Retro burn ignition | |||
| S+20s Retro burn complete | |||
| S+21s despin | |||
| 2022:58 | S+22s T/C sep | ||
| 2024:11 | Voltage Monitor Closed | ||
| Entry | |||
| 2031:49 | G-switch open | ||
| 2032:24 | Forebody sep | ||
| 2032:35 | S+10min Chute | ||
| 2052:33 | Aircraft look-see pass | ||
| 2055:55 | S+33:19? Recovery - MAR 23 38N 143 45W | ||
| 2103:24 | SRV on aircraft | ||
| 1964 Dec 24 | 1516 | 89.51 231 x 268 x 70.1 | |
| 1964 Dec 25 | 0230 | 89.5 238 x 264 x 70.08 (RAE) | |
| 1964 Dec 26 | 0618 | Last radar pass | |
| Battery failed on orbit 72-73 | |||
| 1964 Dec 26 | End of operations | ||
| 1965 Jan 6 | 2014 | 88.81 208 x 222 x 70.1 | |
| 1965 Jan 10 | 0822 | 88.15 170 x 194 x 70.1 | |
| 1965 Jan 11 | 1027 | Reentered after 21.6d, rev 335, over S Atlantic | |
No comments:
Post a Comment