![]() In the early 1960s, somebody at Lockheed Missiles and Space Company-it is not clear who-came up with the idea of putting a small satellite on the back end of an Agena spacecraft and popping it off when the Agena reached orbit. The Agena served as a second stage and also provided stability, power, and communications for numerous military and intelligence payloads, making it both a rocket stage and a spacecraft. But the NRO has released very little information on its early signals intelligence satellites. There was extra room near the Agena’s engine, and somebody realized that a small satellite could be placed there, getting a free ride to orbit. Monday, ApComments (2) Beginning in 1995 the National Reconnaissance Office began declassifying significant amounts of information about its photographic intelligence satellites. The deployed satellite could even have a small solid rocket motor that could propel it to a higher orbit. The adaptor was composed of two parts, an equipment section at the base and a retrorocket section at the top. The adaptor module was an externally skinned, stringer framed structure, with magnesium stringers and an aluminum alloy frame. It is now possible to describe the missions and equipment of many of these P-11 satellites, which performed electronic wizardry in the murky recesses of the Cold War, and probably beyond. The reentry module was 345.0 cm high, giving a total height of 573.6 cm for the Gemini spacecraft. The crew successfully docked with an uncrewed Agena spacecraft. The initial proposal was for a circular-shaped satellite that would have been about the size of a large pizza (although thicker), but this was quickly refined into a squat, pyramidal box about the size of a fat suitcase. upper stage, with a restartable liquid-propellant engine. There was enough room on the long sides of the box to carry electronics, and clever engineers found ways to fold multiple antennas along the top, bottom, and sides. The primary objective of the Gemini X mission was to rendezvous and dock with Gemini Agena target vehicle 5005 (GATV-5005). The project was named Program 11, and the satellites soon were known as P-11s. Page from an Agena handbook showing the basic P-11 satellite bus, built by Lockheed, and its mounting and deployment from the Agena spacecraft. Launched atop an Atlas booster, the Agena target vehicle (ATV) was a spacecraft used by NASA to develop and practice orbital space rendezvous and docking. ![]() The first P-11 satellite never made it to orbit. Page from an Agena handbook showing the basic P-11 satellite bus, built by Lockheed, and its mounting and deployment from the Agena spacecraft. Launched in March 1963 on the back of a reconnaissance satellite, a rocket failure resulted in the entire spacecraft ending up in the Pacific Ocean.
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