Declassified Photos Reveal CIA’s Deep-Sea Rescue of a Spy Satellite, page

Only July 10, 1971, America's newest photo reconnaissance satellite, the KH-9 Hexagon, dropped a capsule loaded with film toward the Earth. The re-entry vehicle was supposed to open its parachute; an American aircraft would snatch it out of the sky in mid-descent. But the chute was never unfurled. The re-entry vehicle hit the Pacific Ocean with a force of approximately 2,600 G's. And then it sunk down into the deep, before settling at 16,000 feet.

Shortly thereafter, officials from the U.S. Navy and the Central Intelligence Agency decided to go after the Hexagon capsule, using America's most advanced deep-sea exploration vehicle, the Trieste II. There were just two problems with the mission, an internal CIA memo noted: "No object of this size had been actively searched for and located by sonar." And "the Trieste II had not gone below 10,000 feet."

While the incident has been discussed publicly before, many details of what happened next have been locked in government archives for 40 years. On Wednesday, the CIA declassified documents and photographs showing how it went after the Hexagon capsule. Here's what they showed.

(Above) The Hexagon capsule -- known as Recovery Vehicle 1201-3 -- sitting at the bottom of the Pacific.

Full write up and more photo's can be found here:
www.wired.com...

Enjoy!

reply to post by snakebit

---

Yeah, it's probably full of photo's of Submarine bases/ports or even earthworks (nuclear bunkers)? who knows, but I would imagine it's very interesting indeed.

The entire KH-9 satellite was the size of a bus. It's amazing the extent they went to to spy, even 40 years ago.
Wiki KH-9 Hexagon

reply to post by Druscilla

---

Yep, absolutely. The depth was one that surprises me! Well, at that time, with that technology etc.

I would even say desperate! Shame no usable film hey?

This thread reminds me of the movie "Ice Station Zebra" about a spy satellite capsule just like this which comes down over the Arctic instead of its target zone so the Soviets and the U.S./Brits. go after it and it's just a brutal fight to get the darn piece of spy camera film. It's a really great movie, probably one of the better Cold War era thrillers made. I caught it one night on cable and didn't know much about it except that people said it was good, I wasn't disappointed.

I guess the movie had it right about the kind of resources the government was willing to employ just to get back one of these canisters.

reply to post by LifeInDeath

---

Makes you wonder what other "lengths" they go to to cover other stuff up? Hmmmmm?

Hubble\'s Hidden Treasures - Incredible views of the Universe
  Posted 17 days ago with 40 member flags

Curiosity "ChemCam": 5 little holes and one strange object nearby...
  Posted 15 days ago with 24 member flags

Mars curiosity Sol2 Anomalies
  Posted 11 days ago with 22 member flags

Curiosity Just Went Through Mud?
  Posted 0 days ago with 22 member flags

Mars: Fears Curiosity Will Contaminate Planet
  Posted 1 days ago with 21 member flags

Curiosity sends back first high- resolution colour picture of Mars+First voice ever heard on Mars
  Posted 14 days ago with 20 member flags

Milky Way in detail.
  Posted 14 days ago with 13 member flags

Went to the moon, we never went, was scared off, still going!?
  Posted 15 days ago with 11 member flags

Newest topics, updated in real-time:

Newest topics getting flags, in real-time:

Newest topics getting replies, in real-time: