1963-051A
The fourth KH-7, SV 954, was launched on 1963 Dec 18 by Atlas Agena D from Point Arguello. The Agena 4802 upper stage was not separately tracked, but for the first time it separated immediately after launch. The first use of a 4800 series Agena may indicate an operational variant. The orbit perigee was 30 km lower than targeted. The spacecraft remained in orbit for 31 hours. The lifeboat system was used to recover the SRV on rev 18, but all its gas had been used up killing the tumbling and an inaccurate deorbit burn sent the SRV 1200 km downrange of the target - remarkably the recovery team still managed to air-catch the package!
| Program 206 SV 954 | |||
| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 Dec 18 | 2145:30 | Launch by Atlas Agena D | NMFPA |
| 2147:48 | BECO T+2:18 | ||
| 2150:02 | SECO T+4:32 | ||
| 2150:16 | VECO T+4:46 | ||
| 2150:20 | Atlas sep T+4:50 | ||
| 2151:37 | Agena burn T+6:07 | ||
| 2155:38 | Agena MECO T+10:08 | 88.33 138 x 280 x 97.88 (VCR) | |
| 1963 Dec 18 | 2200? | OCV sep from Agena D | |
| 1963 Dec 18 | Agena D reentered? | ||
| 1963 Dec 19 | Last image (rev 16?) | ||
| 1963 Dec 19 | 0230 | 88.48 122 x 266 x 97.89 (RAE) | |
| 0309 | 88.47 126 x 271 x 97.90 (TLE) | ||
| 1963 Dec 20 | 0015? | SRV sep? | |
| 1963 Dec 20 | 0050? | RV recovered on rev 18 | |
| 1963 Dec 20 | 0405? | Reentered after 1.28d | |
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