Discoverer 2

  1959-003

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The second CORONA vehicle, Agena 1018, was intended as a recovery test, carrying a small biomedical payload. On rev 17 the CORONA was tilted down 60 deg for SRV ejection. The SRV ejected too early because of a programming error and landed somewhere near the Spitsbergen Islands in the Arctic. The SRV was probably the first artificial object to return intact to the Earth from orbit. It may even have been the first to be recovered - although the CIA never saw it again, they concluded at the time that the Soviets may have located it, inspiring the novel and movie `Ice Station Zebra'. However, the Soviet involvement seems to have been an imaginative stretch. 

CORONA 2
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1959 Apr 13	2119	Launch by Thor Agena A	V
	2121	Thor MECO (T+2:39)
	2121	Thor VECO (T+2:48)
	2121	Thor sep (T+2:51)
	2124	Agena 1018 burn (T+4:59)
	2126	Agena cutoff (T+6:58)
			253 x 346 km (VCR)
			90.4 239 x 346 x 89.9 (RAE)
			90.4 239 x 346 x 89.9 (SATCAT)
1959 Apr 15	0004?	Rev 17 SRV sep prematurely
		Sep + 10s SRV deorbit	-245? x 415? x 89.9
		Sep + 22s T/C sep
	0014?	Sep +10m reentry
	0018?	SRV impact in Spitzbergen
1959 Apr 15	1000?	End of tx rev 25
1959 Apr 19		CW beacon last detected
1959 Apr 24	1430		88.9 199 x 238x 89.9 (RAE)
1959 Apr 26	0900?	Agena reentered between rev 203 and 206

Payload:

• Satellite Recovery Vehicle (Mk I Biomed Recovery Capsule)