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33-710: KH-9 ( BYEMAN codename HEXAGON ), commonly known as Big Bird or KeyHole-9 , was a series of photographic reconnaissance satellites launched by the United States between 1971 and 1986. Of twenty launch attempts by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), all but one were successful. Photographic film aboard the KH-9 was stored on RCA Astro Electronic Division take up reel system then sent back to Earth in recoverable film return capsules for processing and interpretation. The highest ground resolution achieved by

66-569: A Block-II panoramic camera and SBA. Block-III (missions 13 to 18) included upgrades to electrical distribution and batteries. Two added tanks with ullage control for the Orbit Adjust System (OAS) and new thrusters for the Reaction Control System (RCS) served to increase KH-9's operational lifetime. In addition, the nitrogen supply for the film transport system and the camera vessel was increased. Block-IV (missions 19 and 20)

99-489: A "mapping camera" (also known as a "frame camera") that used 9 in (230 mm) film and had a moderately low resolution of initially 30 ft (9.1 m), which improved to 20 ft (6.1 m) on later missions (somewhat better than LANDSAT ). Intended for mapmaking, photos this camera took cover the entire Earth with images between 1973 and 1981. Almost all the imagery from this camera, amounting to 29,000 images, each covering 3,400 km (1,300 sq mi),

132-459: A 20 in (510 mm) diameter aspheric corrector plate, which corrects the spherical aberration of the Wright design. In each of the cameras the ground image passes through the corrector plate to a 45°-angle flat mirror, which reflects the light to a 0.91 m (3 ft 0 in)-diameter concave main mirror. The main mirror directs the light through an opening in the flat mirror and through

165-540: A 2003 NRO Town Hall meeting, mentioning that retiring the BCS would remove barriers that prevented the NRO and U.S. Intelligence Community from working together as a team. The use of BCS was so prevalent throughout the U.S. Intelligence Community, that a handful of websites were set up to direct users through the retirement process. An individual inside the CIA's Special Security Center chose

198-714: A continuation of Executive Order 12951. The declassified imagery has since been used by a team of scientists from Dartmouth College to detect Roman forts in Syria, and the Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology (ICAC) to detect qanat irrigation systems. Other U.S. imaging spy satellites: Byeman Control System The BYEMAN Control System (BCS) was put in place in 1961 by the Central Intelligence Agency . Discussions regarding BCS retirement were held as early as 2003. NRO Director Peter B. Teets spoke at

231-622: A fifth added for missions that included a mapping camera. Between September 1966 and July 1967, the contractors for the Hexagon subsystems were selected. Lockheed Missiles and Space Company (LMSC) was awarded the contract for the Satellite Basic Assembly (SBA), Perkin Elmer for the primary Sensor Subsystem (SS), McDonnell for the Reentry Vehicle (RV), RCA Astro-Electronics Division for

264-423: A four-element lens system onto the film platen . The cameras could scan contiguous areas up to 120° wide, and achieved a ground resolution better than 2 ft (0.61 m) during the later phase of the project. Dwayne Allen Day calculated, using disclosed specifications, that HEXAGON was capable of 0.2 m (7.9 in) at nadir, and 0.4 m (1 ft 4 in) at apogee. Missions 1205 to 1216 carried

297-534: A lengthy search, but the film had disintegrated during the nine months underwater, leaving no usable photographs. Over the duration of the program, the lifetime of the individual satellites increased steadily. The final KH-9 operated for 275 days. The satellite mass with and without the Mapping Camera System was 13,300 and 11,400 kg (29,300 and 25,100 lb), respectively. NRO intended to replace HEXAGON with ZEUS, later DAMON—HEXAGON's camera flown on

330-563: A record at the time. Trieste II (DSV-1) continued her active service in the Pacific Fleet into 1980. The Trieste class DSV were replaced by the Alvin class DSV, as exemplified by the famous Alvin (DSV-2) . The Alvin s are more capable, more maneuverable, less fragile, but also can not dive as deep, reaching only a maximum of 20,000 feet (6,100 m) (for the Sea Cliff (DSV-4) ). Trieste II

363-679: A single day on 17 September 2011 in the parking lot of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum . On 26 January 2012, the National Museum of the United States Air Force put a KH-9 on public display along with its predecessors the KH-7 and KH-8 . KH-9 was, according to many who worked on it, the most sophisticated mechanical satellite in history. It was conceived in

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396-479: A transfer line to facilitate propellant exchange. The tank pressure was maintained within the operational range by additional high pressure nitrogen tanks. The SCS incorporated a freon gas system for backup attitude control inherited from the Agena, commonly referred to as "lifeboat". SCS was equipped with deployable solar panels and an unfurlable parabolic antenna for high data rate communication. The main camera system

429-602: The Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), BYEMAN was retired on 20 May 2005. Most information held within the BCS was transitioned into the Talent Keyhole Control System. In the 1998 blockbuster movie Armageddon , a misspelling of the word, (i.e. "BYMAN") is used on a cover sheet protecting photos of the incoming asteroid. (the correct spelling, BYEMAN, was still classified " Confidential " at that time.) Trieste II (Bathyscaphe) Trieste II (DSV-1)

462-624: The Himalayas over the past half-century used data collected by KH-9 satellites throughout the 1970s and 1980s to demonstrate that melt rates had doubled since 1975. The KH-9 was never a backup project for the KH-10 Manned Orbital Laboratory . It was developed solely as a replacement for the Corona search system. The forward section of KH-9 housed four McDonnell Douglas Mark 8 satellite reentry vehicles (RV), which were fed film exposed by

495-566: The Space Shuttle —but DAMON was canceled in December 1980. In December 1976 NRO launched the first KH-11 KENNEN . While its electro-optical digital imaging had a smaller field of view than HEXAGON, by not needing film KENNEN was usable for years. The Satellite Control Section (SCS), which forms the aft part of the SBA, started as Air Force Project 467. SCS was intended as a more capable replacement for

528-562: The Film Take-Up system, and Itek for the Stellar Index camera (SI). Integration and ground-testing of Satellite Vehicle-1 (SV-1) were completed in May 1971, and it was subsequently shipped to Vandenberg Air Force Base in a 70 ft (21 m) container. Ultimately, four generations ("blocks") of KH-9 HEXAGON reconnaissance satellites were developed. KH9-7 (missions 7 to 12) was the first to fly

561-539: The acquisition of accurate intelligence for the formulation of U.S. national policy decisions as well as deployment of U.S. forces and weapon systems. The satellites were instrumental in U.S. National Technical Means of Verification of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABMT). The KH-9 was declassified in September 2011 and an example was put on public display for

594-457: The addition of skegs or outriggers on both sides of the sphere. During that same time period, work was under way on a third configuration of the bathyscaphe. This work resulted in yet a new appearance for the Trieste II , and included the installation of a new pressure sphere, designed for operation to 20,000 feet (6,100 m). As the bathyscaphe continued her operations as a test vehicle for

627-541: The atmospheric density at high altitudes in an effort to understand the effect on ephemeris predictions . The measurements of the atmospheric density were released through NASA . Missions 1203, 1207, 1208, 1209, and 1212 to 1219 included Ferret ELINT sub-satellites , which were launched into a high Earth orbit to catalogue Soviet air defence radars, eavesdrop on voice communications, and tape missile and satellite telemetry. Missions 1210 to 1212 also included scientific subsatellites. IRCB (Infra-Red Calibration Balloon)

660-429: The deep submergence program, she qualified four officers as "hydronauts" – the beginning of a burgeoning oceanographic operation. Trieste II' s valuable experience in deep submergence operations has helped in the design and construction of other deep-diving submersibles which could be used in rescuing crews and recovering objects from submarines in distress below levels reachable by conventional methods. This unique craft

693-567: The early 1960s as a replacement for the CORONA search satellites. The goal was to search large areas of the Earth with a medium resolution camera. The KH-9 carried two main cameras, although a mapping camera was also carried on several missions. The photographic film from the cameras was sent to recoverable re-entry vehicles and returned to Earth, where the capsules were caught in mid-air by an aircraft. Four re-entry vehicles were carried on most missions, with

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726-486: The main cameras of the satellite was 2 ft (0.61 m), though another source says "images in the "better-than-one-foot" category" for the last "Gambit" missions. They are also officially known as the Broad Coverage Photo Reconnaissance satellites (Code 467), built by Lockheed Corporation for the NRO. The satellites were an important factor in determining Soviet military capabilities and in

759-433: The main cameras. Each RV had an empty mass of 434 kg. It housed a film take-up assembly (built by RCA Astro Electronic Division) with a mass of 108 kg, and could store about 227 kg of film. The twelve mapping missions were equipped with an additional General Electrics Mark V RV, which could store about 32 kg of film for a total mass of 177 kg. Missions 1205 to 1207 carried Doppler beacons to help map

792-516: The name from a random list of four words drawn from the CIA's codeword file. A byeman is a man who works underground; it is unknown if the individual knew the word's meaning before its selection. This is a small list of the publicly acknowledged programs that were held within the BCS: While many other NRO programs resided within the BCS, their codenames have not been made public through proper disclosure or official declassification. By order of

825-618: The new high-pressure sphere cast by the German Krupp Steelworks. The Trieste sphere was suspended from an entirely new float, more seaworthy and streamlined than the original, but operating on identical principles. Completed in early 1964, Trieste II was placed on board USNS Francis X. McGraw (T-AK241) and shipped, via the Panama Canal, to Boston. Commanded by Lt Comdr. John B. Mooney Jr., with co-pilot Lt. John H. Howland and Capt. Frank Andrews, Trieste II conducted dives in

858-607: The on-orbit propulsion, which had been provided by the Agena upper stage for previous generations of reconnaissance satellites. The SCS featured an increased diameter of 10 ft (3.0 m) (compared to 5 ft (1.5 m) for the Agena) and a length of 6 ft (1.8 m). It housed hydrazine propellant tanks for the pressure fed Orbital Adjust System (OAS) and the Reaction Control System (RCS). OAS and RCS were connected by

891-447: The vicinity of the loss site of Thresher – operations commenced by the first Trieste the year before. She recovered bits of wreckage, positively fixing the remains as that of the lost Thresher , in September 1964. Between September 1965 and May 1966, Trieste II again underwent extensive modification and conversion at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, but there is no clear record that she was ever operated in that new configuration, i.e.,

924-697: Was an 66 cm diameter inflatable calibration sphere orbited in the Space Test Program . It was a piggy-back payload on KH9-8 (1208) boosting it to a 500 mile (800 kilometers) circular orbit. It disappeared from ground-based sensors in the 1990s, and was found again in 2024. (NSSDC ID Numbers: See COSPAR ) The total cost of the 20 flights KH-9 program from FY1966 to FY1986 was US$ 3.262 billion in respective year dollars (equivalent to 17.47 billion in 2023, with an average reference year of 1976). Data source: The Encyclopedia of US Spacecraft and NSSDC The HEXAGON images have been declassified in 2011 as

957-401: Was declassified in 2002 as a result of Executive order 12951, the same order which declassified CORONA, and copies of the films were transferred to the U.S. Geological Survey 's Earth Resources Observation Systems office. Scientific analysis of declassified KH-9 satellite images continues to reveal historic trends and changes in climate and terrestrial geology. A 2019 study of glacial melt in

990-400: Was designed by Perkin-Elmer to take stereo images, with a forward looking camera on the port side, and an aft looking camera on the starboard side. Images were taken at altitudes ranging from 90–200 mi (480,000–1,060,000 ft; 140–320 km). The camera optical layout is an f/3.0 folded Wright camera , with a focal length of 60 in (1,500 mm). The system aperture is defined by

1023-553: Was equipped with an extended command system using plated-wire memory . In the mid 1970s, over 1,000 people in the Danbury, Connecticut area worked on the secret project. A reentry vehicle from the first Hexagon satellite sank to 16,000 ft (4,900 m) below the Pacific Ocean after its parachute failed. The USS  Trieste II  (DSV-1) retrieved its payload in April 1972 after

KH-9 Hexagon - Misplaced Pages Continue

1056-451: Was listed only as "equipment" in the Navy inventory until the autumn of 1969. On 1 September 1969, Trieste II was placed in service, with the hull number X-1. She was reclassified as a deep submergence vehicle (DSV) on 1 June 1971. On 25 April 1972, Trieste II recovered a satellite package called a "bucket" weighing several hundred pounds from a depth of greater than 16,000 feet (4,900 m),

1089-703: Was the United States Navy 's first bathyscaphe purchased from its Swiss designers, and the successor to Trieste . The original Trieste design was heavily modified by the Naval Electronics Laboratory in San Diego, California and built at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard . Trieste II incorporated the original Terni , Italian-built sphere used in Trieste , after it was made redundant by

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