Gambit-3 18

  1968-108A

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KH-8 18 was launched on 1968 Dec 4 by Titan IIIB Agena D from Vandenberg. This mission, which lasted 8 days, was the first of three that would use a much higher apogee. When the program was declassified it was revealed that these high apogee missions were unintentional; on this flight it was the Titan second stage that burned to depletion instead of cutting off, adding extra energy. This happened because the Vandenberg ground station was unable to send commands to the Titan. The orbit was adjusted on rev 93 with an SPS single-engine burn.

KH-8 18
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1968 Dec 4	1923	Launch by Titan 3B Agena D	V SLC4W
	1925?	Titan stage 1 sep
	1925?	Titan stage 2 sep
	1928?	Agena burn
	1933?	Agena MECO
			93.30 136 x 736 x 106.2
1968 Dec 4	2332		93.26 126 x 741 x 106.3
1968 Dec 5	0851		93.27 132 x 736 x 106.2
1968 Dec 6	0459		92.37 127 x 654 x 106.2
1968 Dec 9	0341		91.98 124 x 619 x 106.2
		Perigee raise, SPS, rev 93
1968 Dec 11	0311		91.90 133 x 602 x 106.2
	2205?	SRV deorbited rev 111
1968 Dec 12	0209		91.83 135 x 593 x 106.2
1968 Dec 12		Reentered after 8d
	2240?	Deboost rev 127