Discoverer 5

Discoverer 5, also known as Corona 9002, was an American optical reconnaissance satellite launched on 13 August 1959 at 19:00:08 GMT, the second of ten operational flights of the Corona KH-1 spy satellite series. Though the satellite was successfully orbited, the onboard camera failed within the first orbit, and the film-return capsule failed to deorbit as planned.

Background


"Discoverer" was the civilian designation and cover for the Corona satellite photo-reconnaissance series of satellites managed by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense and the U.S. Air Force. The primary goal of the satellites was to replace the U-2 spyplane in surveilling the Sino-Soviet Bloc, determining the disposition and speed of production of Soviet missiles and long-range bombers assess. The Corona program was also used to produce maps and charts for the Department of Defense and other US government mapping programs.

The first series of Corona satellites were the Keyhole 1 (KH-1) satellites based on the Agena-A upper stage, which not only offered housing but whose engine provided attitude control in orbit. The KH-1 payload included the C (for Corona) single, vertical-looking, panoramic camera that scanned back and forth, exposing its film at a right angle to the line of flight. The camera, built by Fairchild Camera and Instrument with a f/5.0 aperture and 61 cm focal length, had a ground resolution of 12.9 m. Film was returned from orbit by a single General Electric Satellite Return Vehicle (SRV) constructed by General Electric. The SRV was equipped with an onboard small solid-fuel retro motor to deorbit at the end of the mission. Recovery of the capsule was done in mid-air by a specially equipped aircraft.

Discoverer 5 was preceded by Discoverer 4, launched 25 June 1959, and three Discoverer test flights whose satellites carried no cameras, launched in the first half of 1959.

Spacecraft
The battery-powered Discoverer 5 was a cylindrical satellite 1.5 m in diameter, 5.85 m long and had a mass after second stage separation, including propellants, of roughly 3850 kg. After orbital insertion, the satellite and SRV together massed 870 kg. The capsule section of the reentry vehicle was 84 cm in diameter and 69 cm long. Like Discoverer 4, Discoverer 5 carried the C camera for its photosurveillance mission.

The capsule was designed to be recovered by a specially equipped aircraft during parachute descent, but was also designed to float to permit recovery from the ocean. The main spacecraft contained a telemetry transmitter and a tracking beacon.

Mission
Discoverer 5 was launched on 13 August 1959 at 19:00:08 GMT from Vandenberg LC 75-3-4 into a 193 km x 353 km polar orbit by a Thor-Agena A booster. Within one orbit, however, the camera had already failed. Telemetry on the ground indicated that the temperature inside the satellite was abnormally low, and that the film had never loaded itself into the camera. It likely had broken on its way out of the supply container. On 14 August, one day after launch, the SRV separated from its satellite bus for recovery. The capsule's retrorocket propelled the SRV up to a higher orbit with an apogee of 1703 km rather than deorbiting it, and no signals were received from the capsule, presumably due to a telemetry sequencing problem. The satellite bus reentered on 28 October 1959. The Discoverer 5 capsule (COSPAR 1959-005B, SATCAT 26) decayed from orbit on 11 February 1961.

Legacy
CORONA achieved its first fully successful flight with the mission of Discoverer 14, launched on August 18, 1960. The program ultimately comprised 145 flights in eight satellite series, the last mission launching on 25 May 1972. CORONA was declassified in 1995, and a formal acknowledgement of the existence of US reconnaissance programs, past and present, was issued in September 1996.