I need help gaining information about an old satellite

I am looking for resources that will help me gain a grasp of the mission of satellite NORAD ID 2420 or OPS 6874 launched in 1966 and Decayed in 1968. I am looking for mission details, orbit, and technical details. I would appreciate any help that leads me to learning more about this satellite as it seems mysterious I can only find it vaguely referenced in the ny2p site, otherwise I’m not privy to other resources out there to look further into this specific satellite.

As always thank you in advance ATS for your help!

Love,
Your friendly neighborhood B-man

a reply to: Brotherman

I'm not familiar with that satellite, sorry. I am interested in seeing what ATS digs up though.

But isn't there like an 80 year waiting period on that type of secrety stuff? I mean barring a FOIA request and declassification?

I fear if it hasn't been declassified, we may have to wait another 30 years or so.

a reply to: watchitburn
I wasn’t aware it was a secret satellite 😁 I won’t link the thread but I once asked before for help identifying some information in the space exploration forum if you look at my authored threads you’ll see why this satellite is interesting to me.

a reply to: Brotherman

It may not be, I don't know.

But if it's a NORAD satellite that was launched during the cold war, I'd think the odds of it being classified are pretty good.

a reply to: watchitburn
It has an international code 1966-083B so it was publicly known to be in the sky... but really that’s almost all I know. I also know it was launched from Air Force Western Test Range and what ever it was doing was being monitored in Goddard space center and it was recorded on Ampex 832 reel to reel tapes. I don’t know where or if it crashed/ recovered I also know this satellite was utilized by nasa. I’d like to know more about this thing for sure.

To add looking into where it was launched from there are only two notable launches one in 1959 and then jumps right to 2013 on the wiki. I’m Ducking lost and really need the help of a more astute researcher to help me change my tactics, I don’t even know where to begin digging in archival info.

a reply to: Brotherman

Very interesting, unfortunately I don't think I'll be much help to you here and I don't want to clutter up your thread any further.

Hopefully someone comes by who can shed some light on this.

a reply to: watchitburn
Hey man your not cluttering the thread. I didn’t even make a thread in well over a year and your a long time face I recognize and respect around here, shizzzzz I’ll have been here for like 9 years in a couple days, you don’t clutter my thread. Then again maybe other people you know here will see you commented and they might know something and you help me after all. Beers for everyone!

LINK

The Fanion Tripos satellites were part of a series of so called Program 11 or P-11 "Subsatellite Ferrets", low orbit ELINT/SIGINT satellites to pinpoint and characterize different Radar emitters in the Soviet Union and Warsaw pact states.

The satellites were based on Lockheed's P-11 bus, which was designed to fit on the aft rack of the Agena-D upper stage. The bus contained each one or two focused payload black boxes and different antenna configurations according to payload, as well as deployable solar arrays. The satellite featured two solid rocket motors, which allowed them to rise and circularize their orbit after deployment from the host satellite. Both spin or gravity gradient stabilization was possible.

I hope that's the right one?

a reply to: Blaine91555
I’m reading right now. I have a thread about my collection of nasa tapes called need help identifying information but that’s about the tapes themselves and not the satellite if your into this sort of thing and know about it and are willing to help me there is other info there that may have been overlooked. That’s only if your interested (with my widest puppy badger dog eyes 👀)

How did you find that info with the details I provided? The designation seems to be of the 4406 to 4408 OPS (assumed)

a reply to: Brotherman



I'm just good at using search engines. I don't know much about this but I do find these things interesting.

a reply to: Brotherman

" OPS 6874"

That brought it up and it's down the page in the second table.

a reply to: Blaine91555
In your search queries however you do that can you find a place that used to track satellites in an astronomer forum or journal or something maybe? I’ve tried that using my numb skull and couldn’t even figure out how to navigate some of that stuff because they are fairly technical and I don’t have every specific much less a working knowledge of how all that works. That in itself is an education

a reply to: Brotherman

Here is a German link that is interesting.

Same link picked out of Google images.

space.skyrocket.de...

According to this snippet the imagery was stored on film (possibly at the downlink site) before being distributed at ~400 lines resolution

The film scanner is a modified color separation negative scanner used in the graphic arts industry. video permits the use of a core memory in the digital tape reading hardware as an element to adjust the size and aspect ratio of the film scanner output image by adjustment of the clocking pulse used to strobe the digital image data into the digital to analog converter. combination of the digital tape apparatus with the film scanner has proven to be an excellent image output system. The digital form of the output The

ntrs.nasa.gov...

And there is a picture of the 1960 vintage Tiros temporary storage tape system on this link.
(they might be still using the secure locations for this)

airandspace.si.edu...

a reply to: Brotherman

Helpful tips for using Google Search

Mainly it's just using key words instead of sentences or phrases.

Lots of astronomy stuff I think.

LINK
LINK 2
Google Scholar

Sometimes it's just persistence and experimenting with key words.

Thanks fellas I’ll be back in awhile. Picking through some of this stuff you all sent my way, in the mean time beers are on me.

www.n2yo.com...

a reply to: Brotherman

Hey thanks man, I appreciate you saying that. I enjoy reading your posts also.

I just really don't know anything about satellites. But I'll roll this around in my head some more and see if anything falls out.

a reply to: Brotherman

And here is a link to the NSA's guide for doing web searches.

www.nsa.gov...

Some of it is common sense, some of it is pretty helpful.

It may help you in further researching.

a reply to: Brotherman

international code 1966-083B

1966 September 16 - . 17:59 GMT - . Launch Site: Vandenberg. Launch Complex: Vandenberg SLC4E. LV Family: Atlas. Launch Vehicle: Atlas SLV-3 Agena D.

KH 7-32 - . Payload: KH-7 no. 32 / OPS 1686. Mass: 2,000 kg (4,400 lb). Nation: USA. Agency: NRO, USAF. Class: Surveillance. Type: Military surveillance satellite. Spacecraft Bus: WS-117. Spacecraft: KH-7. Decay Date: 1966-09-23 . USAF Sat Cat: 2419 . COSPAR: 1966-083A. Apogee: 328 km (203 mi). Perigee: 146 km (90 mi). Inclination: 93.9000 deg. Period: 89.20 min. KH-7 type satellite. Space craft engaged in investigation of spaceflight techniques and technology (US Cat A). .

OPS 6874 - . Payload: EHH B5. Mass: 60 kg (132 lb). Nation: USA. Agency: NRO, USAF. Class: Surveillance. Type: Naval signals intelligence satellite. Spacecraft Bus: P 11. Spacecraft: SSF. Decay Date: 1968-05-09 . USAF Sat Cat: 2420 . COSPAR: 1966-083B. Apogee: 501 km (311 mi). Perigee: 461 km (286 mi). Inclination: 94.1000 deg. Period: 94.20 min. Radar monitoring..

www.astronautix.com...

I remember seeing the most spectacular aerial light show around or on that date, and in the direction of Vandenberg. The sun had already set, but the bright blue / turning to purple aura was visible in the sky for hours. That might have been the launch in question.

I'm interested in the suggestion it was utilised by NASA. At the time the military and civilian branches of space were very twitchy about sharing information and technology with each other and a certainly the meteorological satellites were developed in parallel and run entirely separately.

According to Philip K Klass's "Secret Sentries in Space" book (1971), the 'ferrets' were used for electromagnetic reconnaissance and were able to detect the location and type of enemy air and missile defence radar installations. At the time he wrote the book they were still top secret, but he summarises them briefly:

The idea was that if you knew where the radar installations were you could plot a bombing path to avoid them, or know exactly when to deploy your decoy measures to fool them. In order to design those decoys (or electronic counter measures), you need to know the radar's operating frequency, how long each radar dish takes to rotate, how long its pulses are and so on.

Originally this detective work was done with long range and high altitude surveillance aircraft, but as both the USSR and China have installations well inside their borders that would be out of reach without crossing into their airspace the satellites were much more useful.

Ferrets were also used to intercept radio transmissions.

Data was stored on tape until it could be fired down to friendly receiving stations away from prying ears.

If you can't find a copy of the book online I'd be happy to scan the relevant few pages and stick them in a dropbox folder or something, there are some other details that would take too long to type out, but as he is trying to ferret out (swidt?) information on a then top secret programme there's a lot of theory and dot joining.