The Daily Mail September 19, 2011

The spy satellite that came in from the Cold War: Visitors flock to see huge secret weapons used by the U.S. that until now were highly classified

By Daily Mail Reporter

The highly classified Hexagon satellite, also known as the Big Bird, which was used to spy on America's Cold War enemies for more than a decade was never seen by public eyes before - until now.

Three of the United States most closely guarded satellites - the KH-7 Gambit, the KH-8 Gambit 3 and the KH-9 Hexagon - were unveiled to the public as part of the National Reconnaissance Office's 50th anniversary.

The vintage satellites - some of them bigger than buses - were displayed to the public on Saturday in a one-day-only exhibit at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport, Virginia.

The Big Bird satellite is 60-feet long and weighs 30,000 pounds, bigger than a bus. It took extremely detailed photographs from space during the Cold War.

It was first placed in orbit in 1971 and was one of the most advanced spy satellites of its time, producing images of the Soviet Union, China and other countries that held strategic importance for the U.S. government.

But until now it was never seen outside the intelligence community.

Its giant camera boasted a focal length of 77 inches, a 20-inch aperture, and the ability to capture detail down to two or three feet.

Each six-inch-wide frame of Hexagon film captured a wide swath of terrain covering 370 nautical miles.

To get the images back to earth, the satellite would launch four film return capsules. An aircraft would capture these capsules in mid-air by snagging their parachutes at their re-entry.

Charles P. Vick, a senior technical and policy analyst at GlobalSecurity.org, told the Washington Post: 'It constituted quite an advance in film-based imagery systems. We have to realize that these film-based systems were the highest technology at the time.'

Saturday's spysat unveiling was attended by a number of NRO veterans who developed and refined the classified spacecraft and their components for decades in secret, finally able to show their wives and families what they actually did 'at the office' for so many years, according to space.com.

Before the first Hexagon spy satellite systems ever launched, the NRO's had the Gambit series of satellites which flew several space missions aimed at providing surveillance over specific targets around the world.

The satellite program's initial system, Gambit 1, first launched in 1963 carrying a KH-7 camera system that included a '77-inch focal length camera for providing specific information on scientific and technical capabilities that threatened the nation,' according to an NRO description.

A second Gambit satellite system, which first launched aboard GAMBIT 3 in 1966, included a175-inch focal length camera.

Unlike the follow-up Hexagon satellites, the Gambit series were designed for extremely short missions.

After the event, the satellites were returned for a time to the headquarters of the highly secretive NRO, located south of Dulles, so employees and 'alumni' of the agency are be able to see it.