1963-032A
On the third and last LANYARD flight, mission 8003 (CORONA program flight 68), the only photos returned from the KH-6 were out of focus due to thermal design problems. This third flight came a few weeks after the test flight of the USAF's GAMBIT high resolution satellite, and the CIA program was cancelled in favour of the new Air Force system.
LANYARD/Agena orbital mass was 1604 kg. The Itek list records this flight as Mission 2006, but this is almost certainly an error. NORAD tracked a debris object, 1963-32B, in a 172 x 418 x 74.9 deg orbit (SATCAT); it reentered Aug 10. It may have been the camera door.
The index camera malfunctioned immediately and the main camera failed on orbit 23.
An NRO memo reports that the mission imaged an SR-71 Blackbird flying over Edwards.
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| LANYARD 3 |
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| Date | Time | Event | Orbit |
|---|
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| 1963 Jul 31 | 0000:17 | Launch by TAT Agena D | V Pad 2 |
| | 0000:27 | TAT launch (NRO doc) |
| | 0001 | Castor sep (T+1:10) |
| | 0002 | Thor MECO (T+2:30) |
| | 0002 | Thor VECO (T+2:39) |
| | 0002 | Thor sep (T+2:45) |
| | 0002 | Agena burn (T+2:50) |
| | 0007:17 | Agena MECO (T+6:50) | 90.6 168 x 467 x ? (VCR) |
| | 0007? | Camera door ejected? |
| 1963 Aug 1 | | | 90.6 155 x 455 x 74.9 (SATCAT) |
| 1963 Aug 2 | 0201? | SRV ejected, deorbit rev 33 |
| | 0232 | Recovered |
| | 0250 | SRV recovered mid-air (error?) |
| 1963 Aug 5 | 1700 | | 90.4 157 x 411 x 75.0 (RAE) |
| 1963 Aug 12 | 0520? | LANYARD/Agena reentered |
