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Unmanned Space Expands

v1.1.1 / chapter 20 of 26 / 01 apr 13 / greg goebel / public domain

* While the US and the USSR raced to the Moon, unmanned space flight was not neglected. Improved spy satellites were launched; communications, navigation, weather, and scientific satellites were put into space; and more probes were sent to the planets.

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[20.1] ADVANCES IN SPACE RECONNAISSANCE
[20.2] COMSATS COME OF AGE
[20.3] WEATHER, NAVIGATION, & SCIENCE SATELLITES
[20.4] NEW PLANETARY MISSIONS

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[20.1] ADVANCES IN SPACE RECONNAISSANCE

* The race to put improved satellites into Earth orbit wasn't as glamorous as the Moon race, but it was much more practical, and progress went at a steady clip through the 1960s.

The initial CORONA spy satellite flights led to more advanced technology. The first "KH-4" high-resolution stereo satellite was put into space in early 1965, followed by the "KH-5 ARGON" area-mapping satellite later in the year. The KH-5 could spot targets; the KH-5 could locate them accurately for American ICBMs. The KH-4 was followed by improved subvariants.

A "KH-6 LANYARD" improved high-resolution satellite was tested in 1963 but was a failure. However, the "KH-7 GAMBIT" high-resolution satellite with two film-return buckets was launched in the same year and proved successful, and was followed by the similar but improved "KH-8 GAMBIT" in 1968. The final CORONA series spacecraft, the "KH-9" or "Big Bird" series with four film-return buckets, was put into service in 1971, to be launched by Titan 3 boosters.

SIGINT satellites were put into space in parallel with the film-return satellites. There were two primary classes at the time: "Piggyback" satellites generally launched as secondary payloads on Keyhole missions, these satellites apparently being descendants of GRAB / SOLRAD; and large "Ferret" satellites that were launched, beginning in 1963, as single payloads on Atlas Agena boosters. The Ferrets were low-orbit satellites; they would be followed in 1968 by high-orbit SIGINT satellites, codenamed "CANYON".

It was not known for decades that a launch in December 1964 that was labeled a Ferret mission was actually a test flight of a radar reconnaissance satellite, codenamed QUILL. Radar surveillance would permit observation from orbit day or night, in any weather. QUILL stored its radar imagery on a film strip and sent it back from orbit in a reentry bucket. It was strictly a demonstration system, lacking adequate resolution for military surveillance, and there was no follow-on flight for decades.

In response to the 1963 Test-Ban Treaty, which outlawed above-ground nuclear tests, the USAF developed a surveillance satellite system to watch for illegal test blasts. They launched the first pair of "Vela" satellites with an Atlas Agena booster on 17 October 1963. The 225 kilogram (500 pound) Velas carried X-ray, neutron, and gamma-ray detectors to identify nuclear explosions. They were in the form of polygonal solids, with sensors at the vertices to permit a rough triangulation of the location of a blast.

The full constellation was in place by the mid-1960s, with the satellites continuing into operation until the late 1970s, with the mission then being performed by secondary payloads on other satellites. The Velas had a background scientific mission to monitor space for cosmic events that might be confused for manmade atomic blasts, and in fact the Velas were responsible for a significant scientific discovery, being the first to spot the intense "gamma ray bursts (GRBs)" from deep space that would puzzle astronomers for the rest of the century.

* The Soviets continued to fly refined versions of their Zenit return-capsule spacecraft, increasing their endurance and adding orbital maneuvering capabilities. The Soviets also began to fly SIGINT satellites in the late 1960s, though details remain unclear. By the last half of the 1960s, the Soviets were also experimenting with an interceptor satellite, the "IS-A", to destroy US spy satellites and other low-orbit spacecraft. It was launched by a new booster, the "Tsyklon", a derivative of the big R-36 ICBM.

After the phaseout of the R-7 ICBM, the Angara launch facility at Plesetsk in the northern USSR was modernized to launch space payloads, with the first launches in 1966. The installation became the "Northern Cosmodrome" and it would become the preferred launch site for polar-orbiting satellites such as the Zenit. The majority of military space missions would be lofted from Plesetsk, though some civil and science satellites would be launched from there as well. All manned shots and planetary probes would continue to be launched from Baikonur, however.

The Americans had been observing the Plesetsk installation with CORONA satellites for years but has said little or nothing about it publicly. An association of amateur satellite watchers in Britain, the well-known "Kettering Group" under Geoff Perry, quickly traced back the satellite tracks of the first launches from Plesetsk to give the approximate location of the center. The location was published in the open press, but the Soviet government still kept it a secret until 1983. Sightings of launches from the site often led to the circulation of UFO stories; there are suspicions the Soviet government quietly encouraged the stories as a cover.

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[20.2] COMSATS COME OF AGE

* Although spy satellites were a top priority in unmanned space, communications satellites or "comsats" were also high on the wish list. In July 1961, only months after committing the US to the Apollo program, President Kennedy had taken the political initiative on the matter with a "Policy Statement on Communications Satellites". This led to the US Communications Satellite Act of 1962, the subsequent establishment of the for-profit "Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT)" in 1963, and the 19-nation "International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium (INTELSAT)" in 1964.

By the time that INTELSAT was born, communications satellites were already in commercial service. The first private comsat, and in fact the first significant private space venture, was "Telstar 1", launched on 10 July 1962. Telstar 1 was built by Bell Labs and AT&T and was a 77 kilogram (170 pound) sphere that was placed into low Earth orbit (LEO). Although its coverage from LEO was spotty, Telstar quickly began to relay television broadcasts over the oceans, earning attention in every American household with a TV. Telstar appealed to the infatuation of the American public with high technology, and even inspired a catchy pop-music hit tune of the same name.

Telstar 1 led to "Telstar 2", then to the improved "Relay" and "Syncom" satellites. "Syncom" stood for "synchronous communications", implying operation from geostationary Earth orbit (GEO), and "Syncom 2" became the first geostationary comsat after its launch in July 1963.

The creation of the INTELSAT consortium led to the launch of the group's first satellite, "INTELSAT 1" or "Early Bird", in April 1965. INTELSAT 1 could only carry 240 telephone "voice" channels or a single TV channel. It had a design lifetime of a year and a half, though in fact it operated for four years, and would be actually reactivated for a short time in 1984 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the INTELSAT group.

It was followed in early 1967 by an improved "INTELSAT 2" series of comsats, with the same bandwidth but a longer design life, and then in 1968 by the "INTELSAT 3" series, with 1,500 voice channels or up to four TV channels. By the end of the decade the INTELSAT consortium was a going proposition, with the organization's comsats shuffling voice transmissions, data, fax, and video all around the world on a regular basis.

The military needed comsat systems as well. Following early experiments like Courier and West Ford, the US Air Force developed an operational comsat system, with the first satellites in the "Initial Defense Communication Satellite System (IDCSS)", later renamed the "Defense Satellite Communications System 1 (DSCS 1)" launched on June 1966. Each satellite was a beachball-sized polygon, 86 centimeters (34 inches) in diameter and weighing 45 kilograms (100 pounds). They were launched in a batch of up to eight satellites by a Titan IIIC booster into medium Earth orbit (MEO). Each comsat could stay in line of sight to a ground station for about four days. The full constellation was completed with the fourth DSCS 1 launch on 13 June 1968, with 26 satellites in orbit. They handled military traffic to help conduct the Vietnam War.

The Soviet Union, strapped as always for resources, didn't orbit an operational comsat until 1964, launching the first "Molniya (Lightning)" satellite with, of course, a Molniya booster on 22 August. It failed, but others followed that were successful. The Molniyas were not launched into geosynchronous orbit, instead being sent into a high-inclination elliptical orbit that allowed them to remain high over the USSR for extended period of time. The same orbit was often used by American SIGINT satellites that listened in on Soviet communications, and became known as a "Molniya" orbit.

Even radio amateurs began to get in to the comsat business. Their first effort was a 5 kilogram (11 pound) satellite designated the "Orbital Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio (OSCAR) 1", designed and built by American HAMS and launched on 12 December 1961 as a secondary payload on a CORONA flight. Its only payload was a small radio transmitter that automatically broadcast the Morse code letters for "HI" from its low Earth orbit. It was battery-powered and only operated for 22 days.

Three more "AMSATs" were launched during the 1960s, all built by American amateur radio enthusiasts, with "OSCAR-2" launched in 1962 and "OSCAR-3" and "OSCAR-4" launched in 1965. OSCAR-2 was basically a replay of OSCAR-1, but OSCAR-3 was almost three times bigger and had a more sophisticated payload consisting of a communications relay transponder, a tracking beacon signal, and a simple telemetry signal. It was still basically battery-powered, though it had solar cells that were adequate to power the tracking beacon and telemetry signals. OSCAR-4 was similar to OSCAR-3, but had a fully functional solar power system.

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[20.3] WEATHER, NAVIGATION, & SCIENCE SATELLITES

* The early US TIROS satellites paved the way for weather observation from space, but they were really more technology demonstrators than real operational systems. NASA then went on to introduce the "Tiros Operational System (TOS)" in February 1966. The TOS spacecraft were also which was based on the improved "Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA)" satellites, after their managing organization. Nine ESSA satellites were put into orbit from 1966 into 1968. In 1970, ESSA become the "National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)", which would continue to be involved with weather satellites.

The ESSA satellites used higher-resolution vidicon cameras developed for the "Nimbus" satellites. Nimbus was developed as an experimental spacecraft to develop new sensors and procedures for improved weather satellites and other Earth-observation spacecraft, but was also used for practical observation and measurements. Seven Nimbus satellites were launched, with the first put into orbit in 1964 and the last sent up in 1978.

The US military developed their own weather satellites. The CORONA spy satellites couldn't get useful information if their targets were socked in with cloud cover, and so the NRO developed the "Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP)" to gauge weather conditions for reconnaissance operations. The first DMSP satellite was launched from Vandenberg AFB on 23 August 1962.

The DMSP program was passed on to the Air Force in 1965, which kept the network in operation into the 21st century. Due to the clandestine nature of NRO, many sources identify the program as starting in 1965 and not 1962. DMSP satellites were not only used for assisting strategic reconnaissance, they were also used for tactical operations in the Vietnam War, providing weather reconnaissance for air strikes. Aircraft carriers were fitted with DMSP receivers for mission planning. DMSP was declassified in 1973.

The Soviets were also experimenting with weather satellites in the 1960s, though as could be expected they were secretive about it. The spacecraft were simply assigned "Cosmos" numbers. "Cosmos 44", "58", "100", "118", "122", "144", and "156" were all believed to be weather satellites, and in fact the Soviets did release some details of Cosmos 122. Following Cosmos 156, the Soviets then began launches of an operational weather satellite system, which they gave the name "Meteor". "Meteor 1" was launched on 26 March 1969.

* After the US Navy's initial experimental launches of Transit navigation satellites beginning in 1960, the Transit system was finally declared operational in 1964, with smaller and improved operational "Transit-O" and then, much later, "Transit Nova" satellites launched to keep the constellation operational. The constellation involved six satellites, each transmitting a location signal on two frequencies. Positioning accuracy was adequate to allow a ballistic-missile submarine to put its weapons on target, and could be very good for fixed land sites that could make multiple measurements.

Transit was opened for civilian use in 1967, though the high cost of receivers meant that it remained mostly a military system. Transit would remain operational into 1996, when it was finally replaced by the much superior "Global Positioning System (GPS)" navigation satellites.

The Soviets experimented with a satellite navigation system based on principles similar to Transit in the 1967, launching what appears to have been the first test spacecraft, "Cosmos 192", in 1967. However, they did not obtain an operational constellation until the 1970s. Since their nuclear forces were less reliant on submarine-launched ballistic missiles, they did not have the same need for it as the Americans and did not give it as high a priority.

* Exploring space meant understanding the space environment, and in fact the early US Explorer series of satellites had carried instruments to achieve that goal. Other Explorer space physics satellites followed, known as "Interplanetary Monitoring Platforms (IMPs)". The first, "Explorer 18 / IMP 1", was successfully launched by NASA on 26 November 1962, and was followed by nine more IMPs to October 1973. The IMPS not only returned valuable scientific data but acted as "sentries" to warn space travelers about solar flare hazards.

Other Explorers were launched to observe the Earth's upper atmospheric region and measure micrometeoroid impacts. NASA also launched three specialized "Pegasus" satellites in 1965 as part of Saturn I test shots to measure micrometeoroid impacts in support of the agency's manned spaceflight program.

A second series of Pioneer probes, "Pioneer 6" through "Pioneer 9", were launched from 1965 into 1968, being placed into solar orbit to perform space environment studies. A series of six "Orbiting Geophysical Observatories (OGOs)" were put into orbit from 1964 to 1969 to perform measurements of the near-space environment around the Earth.

Although obtaining a better knowledge of the space environment was a top priority, astronomers had been wanting to put telescopes into space since before the beginning of the Space Race. Variations in the Earth's atmosphere tend to impose a limit to the clarity of images obtained from ground-based telescopes, and the atmosphere also blocks large parts of the infrared spectrum and most of the high-energy spectrum. A telescope in orbit flew would be able to see the Universe at wavelengths that could not be picked up by a telescope on the ground.

One of the first orbiting astronomical observatories was the "Orbiting Solar Observatory (OSO)" series of satellites, with the first successfully launched on 7 March 1962, and seven more put into orbit into 1975. They observed solar flares and measured solar activity. The British were also pioneers in space astronomy, putting the "Ariel 1" satellite into orbit on 26 April 1962 to observe high-energy radiation from the Sun and also observe the mysterious high-energy "cosmic rays" arriving from deep space. Five more Ariels were launched into 1979.

The first full-fledged space telescope observatory, the initial "Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO-1)", was launched on 8 April 1966, only to fail after a few hours in orbit. "OAO-2" was launched on 7 December 1968, and performed observations for several years with its eleven ultraviolet telescopes.

The Soviets launched space science satellites in the 1960s, mostly for space environment studies, but as usual most details of these spacecraft remain unclear, with many of them hidden under the blank Cosmos designation. However, the USSR did launch a number of satellites that were announced as scientific spacecraft. The first "Elektron" was put into orbit by a Vostok booster on 30 January 1964 to study the Van Allen belts and space radiation, and was followed by three more Elektrons into 1964. They were then replaced by the big "Proton" satellites, the first of which was launched on 16 July 1965 by a Proton booster, with three more put into orbit into 1968.

The Soviets also launched a series of "DS" satellites, mostly using the "Kosmos 3M" medium booster. The Kosmos 3M was roughly comparable to the US Delta booster, consisting basically of an R-14 IRBM with a restartable second stage. It would become one of the workhorses of the Soviet space program after its introduction in the mid-1960s. There was a wide range of DS satellites, many of which were science satellites, generally focused on space physics. A number of them were flown under the "Intercosmos" program, a cooperative space research effort performed with Eastern European satellite nations. Other DS satellites were focused on technology evaluation and some had strictly military missions, for example as targets for antisatellite interceptors. DS / Kosmos 3M launches were often performed from the old Kapustin Yar site, which was capable of handling the smaller booster.

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[20.4] NEW PLANETARY MISSIONS

* While satellites went into orbit and NASA worked on the Moon shots, both the USSR and the US continued to launch planetary probes, though things did not go entirely smoothly. During 1965, the Soviets fired four probes at Venus, and lost them all. JPL was having problems of their own, though generally of a different sort.

Early in 1960, JPL had considered a sophisticated probe named "Voyager" as a follow-on to the Mariners. It was to consist of a planetary orbiter that would carry a soft-lander and conduct exploration of Mars and Venus. Voyager was too ambitious, and though JPL heavily promoted it NASA headquarters wasn't happy with the idea, and ultimately Congress killed the project in 1967.

There were factions at NASA that were promoting manned planetary missions, but these were even more unrealistic than Voyager. They looked nice in Sunday newspaper supplement articles, but NASA had its hands full with Apollo and lesser projects, and NASA Administrator Webb angrily told NASA centers not to promote unrealistic programs "on the theory that maybe they will elicit support." One of NASA's backers in Congress, Representative Joseph E. Karth, was even more outspoken, telling a reporter: "Very bluntly, a manned mission to Mars or Venus is now and has always been out of the question -- and anyone who persists in this kind of misallocation of resources at this time is going to be stopped."

Few could sensibly claim that manned planetary missions were realistic, but the planetary science community was still frustrated at their second-class status. The manned program received the funds and the glory while they got the left-overs. From a scientific point of view this was a reversal of any rational priorities, since the scientific value of the manned missions was by no means proportional to their tremendous cost.

However, the planetary scientists were somewhat missing the point. While funding for space exploration activities would have no doubt continued even if there had been no space race, the political requirements that were driving the race to the Moon were increasing the funding all down the pyramid. At heart, the people who were funding the Moon project cared little about space science and had no doubts whatsoever that the purpose of the effort was basically political -- but without the Moon project, space science by itself would have got even shorter shrift.

* Whatever their frustrations, planetary exploration advocates could console themselves with further Mariner planetary missions. A second Mariner Venus probe, "Mariner 5", was launched on 14 June 1967, and performed a fly-by of Venus on 19 October 1967 at a closest approach of 4,025 kilometers (2,500 miles). Mariner 5 was actually a backup copy of Mariner 4 that had been refurbished and modified for the Venus mission.

Two more Mariners were launched to Mars in 1969. "Mariner 6" and "Mariner 7" were similar to Mariner 4, but scaled up and more capable. They were substantially heavier than Mariner 4 and had to be launched by Atlas-Centaur boosters. Mariner 6 was launched on 24 February 1969, followed by Mariner 7 on 27 March 1969. Mariner 6 flew by Mars on 31 July 1969, followed by Mariner 7 flew by on 4 August 1969. Mariner 7's journey had been particularly nerve-wracking, characterized by one crisis after another, and mission controllers breathed more easily after the spacecraft flew past the planet. Closest approach of both probes to Mars was about 3,550 kilometers (2,205 miles). They returned 143 "approach" images and 55 close-up images. One of the images was a coarse image of Mars' tiny moon Phobos. The images of Mars itself strengthened the impression established by Mariner 4 that Mars was a bleak, dead world.

The next set of Mariners, intended to go into orbit around Mars, were launched in the spring of 1971. "Mariner 8" was launched by an Atlas-Centaur on 8 May but didn't make orbit. "Mariner 9" was launched on 30 May, going into Mars orbit on 13 November 1971 to observe a huge, planet-wide dust storm in progress. Once the dust settled, Mariner 9 set about making the first detailed map of Mars, discovering interesting features such as oversized volcanoes and a huge canyon that looked like it might have once been carved by rivers; the canyon was named "Valles Marineris" in the spacecraft's honor. The probe even got the first detailed images of the little moons of Mars, Deimos and Phobos.

* The Soviets had been busy in planetary exploration as well, and were beginning to have more luck. A "Venera 1V" probe -- not the same type of spacecraft as the much earlier Venera 1VA series, instead being an improved version of the Venera 3MV series -- was launched on 12 June 1967 by the new improved "Molniya M" booster. The flight went well, with the spacecraft designated "Venera 4", and on 18 October 1967 it dropped an atmospheric probe that relayed data as it descended by parachute. It was destroyed by the heat and pressure before it hit ground, but it was still a significant achievement, all the more so because it had broken the USSR's long losing streak with Venus. Another Venus probe had been launched on 17 June 1967, five days after that of Venera 4. This probe never left Earth orbit and was given the designation of "Cosmos 167".

However, the Soviets launched two more Venus probes in the next launch window, and both were successful. "Venera 5" was launched on 5 January 1969, while "Venera 6" was launched on 10 January. Both probes were "Venera 2" spacecraft, which were further improvements on the Venera 3MV design. Venera 5 dropped its atmospheric entry capsule on 16 May 1969, with Venera 6 dropping its capsule the next day. Both capsules returned data for the better part of an hour.

The Soviets launched two Mars probes during the 1969 launch window to compete with Mariner 6 and 7. They were "Mars M-69" probes, heavy spacecraft launched by Proton boosters that consisted of an orbiter and a soft lander, along the same lines as Luna E-6 soft landers.

The first Mars M-69 was launched on 27 March 1969, but the upper stage didn't light and it didn't make orbit. The second was launched on 2 April 1969; the booster flipped sideways as it lifted off the pad, flew for a short distance, and then blew up in a spectacular explosion that spattered toxic storable propellants all over the launch complex. The double failure remained a secret until the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, and details remain unclear. Although the USSR was finally having things going their own way at Venus, the Soviets were still having troubles with Mars. They always would.

The USSR was, however, beginning to reach a stride in Venus missions. Two "Venera 3V" spacecraft, still further improved versions of the Venera 3MV featuring a lander probe along the lines of the Luna E-6, were launched in the summer of 1970. The first, "Venera 7", was launched on 17 August 1970, and its lander successfully touched down on Venus on 15 December, returning data for 23 minutes. This was the first soft landing of a probe on another planet and another major Soviet "first". The second probe was launched on 22 August but never left Earth orbit, being designated "Cosmos 359".

The Soviets sent two probes to Mars in the 1971 launch window to compete with Mariner 9, with both probes consisting of an orbiter carrying a lander. They were both "Mars M-71" probes, essentially enhanced versions of the Mars M-69 spacecraft.

The first, "Mars 2", was launched on 19 May and entered Mars orbit on 27 November. It dropped its lander, but no data was returned from the surface. The second, "Mars 3", was launched on 28 May and entered Mars orbit on 2 December. It dropped its lander, which made it successfully to the surface and then failed about 20 seconds after landing. It was sent into the huge dust storm that was then in progress, and it may have been simply blown over. US observers noted the inflexibility in Soviet mission procedures, since it would have been more prudent to wait until the storm died down.

Two more Venera 3MV probes were launched in the next Venus launch window, in the spring of 1972, with good results. "Venera 8" was launched on 27 March 1972, and its probe landed on 22 July, returning data for 50 minutes. It carried a light meter that showed that, despite the deep cloud cover and much to everyone's surprise, the light levels on the surface of Venus were similar to those of Earth on a overcast day. The second mission never left Earth orbit, being designated "Cosmos 482".