Secret of American spy satellite

Over the weekend, the US National Reconnaissance Department (NRO) declassified two secret satellite programs with the participation of three top secret spy satellites specializing in Russian and Chinese surveillance: KH-7 GAMBIT, KH- 8 GAMBIT 3 and KH-9 HEXAGON.

KH-9 HEXAGON satellite (Big Bird nickname) is as big as a bus, containing more than 100km of high resolution film for space monitoring tasks. Each 15cm-wide footage captures an area of ​​terrain up to 685km in Russia or China during the Cold War.

HEXAGON cameras turn back and forth when this satellite flies on Earth. Intelligence officers call this process 'cut grass '. According to the NRO, the agency's spy satellites have a resolution of 0.6m to nearly 1m.

Each mission of each HEXAGON satellite lasts about 124 days. Satellite launches four film compartments to send images to Earth. An aircraft will be used to pick up the film compartment (mountable) right in the air.

The film is in a protective box containing high-resolution photos of some Russian missile submarine bases and tunnels.

Before the HEXAGON spy satellite system was completed, the NRO GAMBIT spy system was responsible for monitoring specific targets around the world.

KH-9 HEXAGON spy satellite structure (Photo: Lockheed Martin)

GAMBIT 1, the initial system of the satellite program, was first launched in 1963, carrying a KH-7 camera with a focal length of nearly 2 meters to gather information about the threat of foreign scientific and technical capabilities. American security. The second GAMBIT satellite system was launched in 1966, carrying a camera with a focal length of more than 4.4m.

GAMBIT satellite program operated from July 1963 to April 1984. The satellites are bulky and launched from Vandenberg air base. The first satellites were 4.5m long, 1.5m wide, weighed 523kg. GAMBIT 3 satellite has the same width but longer (9m), heavier (1,873kg).

Unlike HEXAGON satellites later, GAMBIT satellites are designed for short-term missions. The average mission of GAMBIT 1 lasts 6 1/2 days. There were 38 launches, of which 10 failed, according to the NRO.

On average, the task of GAMBIT 3 satellites lasts about 31 days. There were a total of 54 launches, of which 4 failed.

Like the HEXAGON and CORONA programs , GAMBIT satellites send films to Earth through storage chambers and are picked up by planes. GAMBIT 1 has about 914m of movies, while GAMBIT 3 has 3,731m of movies, according to the NRO document.