KH-6 Lanyard

A KH-6 LANYARD main features
Thor SLV-2A Agena D (Thor 360) with KH-6 8001 on 18 March 1963
Thor-SLV2A Agena-D (Thor 364) with KH-6 2 on 18 May 1963

BYEMAN codenamed LANYARD, the KH-6 was the unsuccessful first attempt to develop and deploy a very 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 Leningrad suspected of having anti-ballistic missiles.[2]

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 m (5 ft 6 in) and could discern objects on the ground 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) in size. The ground swath of the camera was 14 km × 74 km (8.7 mi × 46.0 mi). The satellite weighed 1,500 kg (3,300 lb), and had a single re-entry vehicle in which exposed film was returned to earth for a mid-air[3] aircraft recovery.

The KH-6 was manufactured by Lockheed Martin and launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Thor-Agena D launch vehicles.[4]

  1. ^ "NRO review and redaction guide (2006 ed.)" (PDF). National Reconnaissance Office.
  2. ^ "NASA - NSSDCA - Spacecraft - Details". nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  3. ^ Federation of American Scientists FASorg: KH-6 Archived 21 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "KH-6 Lanyard". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 17 January 2024.