KH-6 Lanyard

Codenamed Lanyard, the KH-6 was the unsuccessful first attempt to develop and deploy a high-resolution optical reconnaissance satellite by the United States National Reconnaissance Office.^[1] Launches and launch attempts spanned the period from March to July 1963. The project was quickly put together to get imagery of a site near Tallinn suspected of having anti-ballistic missiles. The satellite carried Itek's "E-5" camera developed for the Samos program, which had been cancelled. The camera had a focal length of 1.67 meters (66 inches) and could discern objects on the ground 1.8 m (6 ft) in size. The ground swath of the camera was 14 km by 74 km (9 mi by 46 mi). The satellite weighed 1500 kg, and had a single re-entry vehicle in which exposed film was returned to earth for a mid-air^[2] aircraft recovery. The KH-6 was manufactured by Lockheed and launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Thor-AgenaD rockets.

KH-6 LANYARD main features

Three launch attempts were made. One attempt failed and another did not use any film.

The film canister contained over 2,250 feet of film with 910 photographic frames.^[2]

Launches

• KH-6 8001 launch failed 1963-03-18 NSSDC ID No. P11 (1963-F03)
• KH-6 8002 launched 1963-05-18 NSSDC ID NO. 016A 1963-016A
• KH-6 8003 launched 1963-07-31 NSSC ID NO. 1963-032A

(NSSDC ID Numbers: See COSPAR)

See also

• Corona KH-1 through 4 (concurrent operations)
• KH-5-ARGON, KH-7 and KH-8-GAMBIT (concurrent operations)
• KH-9-HEXAGON "Big Bird"
• KH-10-DORIAN or Manned Orbital Laboratory
• KH-11, KH-12, KH-13.
• Satellite imagery
• Cold War

References

• Mark Wade (August 9, 2003). KH-6. Encyclopedia Astronautica. Accessed April 23, 2004.

1. ↑ "NRO review and redaction guide (2006 ed.)" (PDF). National Reconnaissance Office. 
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Federation of American Scientists FASorg: KH-6

Concurrent operational projects

• KH-5 (Argon)
• KH-7 (Gambit)

External links

• KH-6 Lanyard. GlobalSecurity.org.

United States reconnaissance satellites IMINT Photographic KH-1 Corona KH-2 Corona KH-3 Corona KH-4A Corona KH-4B Corona KH-5 Argon KH-6 Lanyard KH-7 Gambit KH-8 Gambit 3 KH-9 Hexagon KH-10 Dorian Electro-optical Samos KH-11 Kennan Misty Enhanced Imaging System Synthetic aperture radar Quill Lacrosse FIA Infrared   SIGINT Low Earth orbit GRAB Poppy White Cloud Samos-F Highly elliptical orbit Jumpseat Trumpet Geosynchronous Earth orbit Canyon Magnum Mentor Mercury Rhyolite/Aquacade Vortex MASINT Primary mission FORTE GPS DMSP Vela Secondary mission MIDAS DSP SBIRS STSS Research and development Primary mission MiTEx Secondary mission   Unknown USA number USA-193