KerbalX

Details

• Type: VAB
• Class: satellite
• Part Count: 21
• Mods: 3
• KSP: 1.12.5

Mods

• Bluedog DB
• Squad (stock)
• TweakableEverything

Long-range reconnaissance was always a necessity in warfare and became more important during the Cold War after the Soviet Union began to develop nuclear missiles. It was necessary to gather high-altitude intelligence on military installations, weapons development, and nuclear missile deployment. The solution was the use of high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft such as the U-2 but this was extremely dangerous as Soviet anti-aircraft weapons became more advanced posing more and more of a danger to U-2 aircraft. This was made clear when Gary Powers’ U-2 was shot down in 1960 as one of the most high profile incidents of the Cold War.

The obvious solution was the development of spacecraft, both manned and unmanned, to provide and possibly even analyze high-altitude intelligence. The Key Hole program was initially disguised as Discoverer satellites which were gathering civilian scientific data but in fact were taking the first satellite photographs of Soviet and Chinese military installations and deployments. The KH-1 Corona was developed from the Belle-A upper stage flown on a Thor rocket and became America’s first spy satellite. It operated for approximately a year and a half was limited to a single panoramic camera which had to return a single film cannister which would re-enter and parachute, finally being caught by an aircraft.

The Thor rocket began life as America’s first intermediate ballistic missile, which while having only a relatively short deployment, was the beginning of an entire rocket family using the Thor rocket as the first stage which eventually evolved into the Delta rocket family which is still used today such as the Delta IV Heavy which is used for heavy classified payloads.

The Agena upper stage was developed by the USAF while the USN developed the Able rocket as their upper stage, unlike the Able it was developed from the beginning with a specific purpose in mind to be the platform for America’s first spy satellites. The Agena-A was deployed just slightly ahead of the Able upper stage and would power the Corona, MIDAS, and SAMOS programs with twenty launches between 1959 and 1961. It would continue on as a whole family of upper stages with 365 lifetime launches before being finally retired in 1987.

The Fenris rocket is an approximation of the original Thor rocket and is a simple liquid-fueled rocket which should put the rest of the payload into space depending on your chosen altitude. The Belle-A is an approximation of Agena-A converted into a spy satellite with the addition of the SG-1 Bloodhound which approximates the KH-1 Corona and is used to complete the orbit, make potential orbital adjustments, and finally to de-orbit the satellite and its recovery capsule.

The SG-1 Bloodhound, like its real-life counterpart, is an extremely simple single camera with experiment data collected by a recovery capsule. The recovery capsule collects the data, is jettisoned by the satellite, and uses a short retro rocket to send it into re-entry. It is entirely possible that you may first need to reduce the altitude of the satellite due to the limited nature of the retro-engine. Nevertheless the capability of the satellite has been exhausted once the recovery capsule has been jettisoned so the spent satellite should probably also be de-orbited.

Built in the VAB in KSP version 1.12.5.