Comments on: CIA declassifies deep-sea recovery of KH-9 film reentry vehicle

By: bowser

bowser — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 03:27:02 +0000

They would have known where it hit. Then the essential parts would have sank like a rock. They would have been exposed to measurable currents for a known time.

On the bottom I suspect they were lucky and didn’t have strong currents, at least not strong enough to move them far or screw up the recovery vehicle. I think this is one that was easy, not like the subs where their exact locations weren’t known.

I believe these were the satellites which were the subject of “The Falcon and the Snowman”. It’s of never-ending interest to me that through the actions of these guys, Walker, Alderich, Hanssen, et al., and guys from the other side that there weren’t many secrets. It’s all a game which comes out a tie.

The victories we trumpeted, such as the tunnel into East Berlin which was known to the Soviets even as it was being dug, or the tunnel under the Soviet Embassy which Hanssen gave up early on, were not victories. I’m not sure about the Northern submarine cable expeditions.

And then the Russian bug in the Oval office was precious.

By: RobVG

RobVG — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 03:06:22 +0000

You’re welcome. I thought it was pretty cool too. n/t

By: ER

ER — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 00:39:16 +0000

They could calculate the reentry pretty precisely, true, but once it sinks in (presumably) a couple of miles of water, not only could it have drifted, but you didn’t have any way of determining your position down there. I don’t think they had the kind of imaging sonar we have today, either. Look how long it took them to find those broken arrows in the Med, or Thresher and Scorpion.

By: bowser

bowser — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 21:18:45 +0000

If they could get the recovery planes to the right place, time and altitude they would know where it would be.

Even if the planes were chasing a signal, a lot of ships would be plotting that same signal.

By: Ainz

Ainz — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 20:14:49 +0000

Totally freakin’ ‘Ice Station Zebra’

I’m reading my way through the linked CIA Data page.

By: TB

TB — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 16:02:07 +0000

The “disintegration” was interesting. I wonder if there was air trapped anywhere in the system, connected to the outside by some slow leak, that would build up pressure over a long time but not be able to vent as you brought it up.

That “gumdrop” configuration of the re-entry capsule is one I’ve used a number of times in spacecraft designs. It’s a very stable shape for reentry, although as a ballistic reentry vehicle, the g-loads are pretty bad for people. Most designs I’ve used it in involve engine capsules for recovering complex (and expensive) rocket engines from near-orbit velocities.

By: ER

ER — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 16:00:48 +0000

It was designed for a parachute snatch recovery, so it must not have had any sort of underwater signalling device aboard to help locate it. Even if the recovery pilot saw it actually hit the water, there was no GPS in those days, how did they know where exactly where it was? LORAN?

Finding that dude was a remarkable achievement, even more so than the remote sensing aspect was, in 1971. KEYHOLE data was already obsolete when I started in remote sensing in the late 70s. Everything was digital, right off the sensor platform.

Its taken 41 years to declassify this. I wonder what is possible now, when money is no object.