Tuesday, January 29, 2002

Gambit 8

 1964-024A


Mission 4308, KH-7 no. 8 was launched on 1964 May 19 by Atlas Agena D from Point Arguello. The Agena D 4806 stage was not separately cataloged. The orbit was lower than planned when the Agena lost roll control and fired in the wrong direction. The spacecraft separated but the OCV had problems with its on-board systems. Initial orbit was 106 x 352 km; a burn on rev 2 raised perigee to 167 km (or 146 km per the TLE). Starting on Rev 16 the vehicle was unstable. However, 52 targets were observed.

The low orbit provided improved models of atmospheric density in the 90-130 km altitude range, which were quietly released via NASA without explanation of their derivation.


KH-7 8 (SV 958) 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1964 May 19  1921:14  Launch by Atlas Agena D  NMFPA 
 1923:30  BECO (T+2:16) 
 1925:48  SECO (T+4:34) 
 1926:05  VECO (T+4:51) 
 1926:07  Atlas sep (T+4:53) 
 1927:06  Agena burn (T+5:52) 
 1931:08  Agena MECO (T+9:54)  88.2 106 x 352 x 101.0 (VCR) 
  Agena 4806 sep from OCV 
  Agena 4806 reentered? 
1964 May 20  0217  OCV orbit 89.83 146 x 386 x 101.2 
1964 May 20  1700 OCV orbit 89.69 141 x 380 x 101.12 (RAE) 
1964 May   OCV orbit  89.8 148 x 285 x 101.2 (SATCAT) 
1964 May 21   Rev 16 last image 
1964 May 21  1107  OCV orbit  88.85 98 x 337 x 101.0 
1964 May 21  2157?  SRV deorbit 
 2232?  SRV recovered on Rev 34 
1964 May 22  0453   88.57 163 x 244 x 101.1 
1964 May 22  1700?  Reentered after 2.9d 


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