Monday, January 2, 1989

Gambit 3

  1963-041A


KH-7 no. 3 (SV 953) was launched on 1963 Oct 25 by Atlas Agena D from Point Arguello. The SV had been refurbished after use in thermal vacuum testing. The RV was recovered after 2 days, with 34 revs in `hitchup' mode with OCV attached to Agena. The OCV spacecraft remained in orbit for 4 days and was deorbited on Oct 29; the Agena D 4703 rocket stage separated in orbit and reentered on Oct 29 together with two pieces of debris. This flight qualified the OCV stabilization system and was the first to adjust its orbit. The mission was the first to use a very low perigee: 145 km according to the launch report; 123 km by the time of the first element set five hours after launch. 


Program 206 SV 953 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1963 Oct 25  1859:27  Launch by Atlas Agena D  NMFPA 
 1901:42  BECO (T+2:15) 
 1904:00  SECO (T+4:33) 
 1904:07  VECO (T+4:40) 
 1904:10  Atlas sep (T+4:43) 
 1905:35  Agena burn (T+6:08) 
 1909:37  Agena MECO (T+10:10)  88.97 145 x 339 x 99.1 (VCR) 
1963 Oct 26  0000   88.99 144 x 332 x 99.05 (RAE) 
 0025   88.87 123 x 313 x 99.05 
1963 Oct   SV 953 orbit  88.8 123 x 312 x 99.1 (SATCAT) 
1963 Oct 27  1900  SV 953 orbit  88.70 140 x 272 x 99.1 (RAE) 
 1922   88.61 119 x 292 x 99.1 
1963 Oct 27   Rev 32 last image 
1963 Oct 27  2118? RV sep on Rev 34 
 2130? OCV sep from Agena D 
1963 Oct 27  2130  41B orbit  88.85 136 x 297 x 99.1 (RAE) 
 2155? RV recovered 
1963 Oct   Agena (41B) orbit  88.7 120 x 305 x 99.1 (SATCAT) 
1963 Oct 29  0000?? Agena reentered 
1963 Oct 29   Debris 41C, 41D reentered 
1963 Oct 29  1900?  OCV reentered after 4.0d 

No comments:

Post a Comment

These Are Not My Beautiful Stories

  Summary: The chapters within are outlines for both future stories I’ve got planned (in the case that I never get around to writing them) a...