Discoverer 24, also known as Corona 9018A, was an American
area survey optical
reconnaissance satellite which was launched in 1961 but failed to achieve orbit. It was a
KH-5 Argon
KH-5 ARGON was a series of reconnaissance satellites produced by the United States from February 1961 to August 1964. The KH-5 operated similarly to the CORONA series of satellites, as it ejected a canister of photographic film. At least 12 ...
satellite, based on an
Agena-B.
It was the third KH-5 to be launched.
The launch of Discoverer 24 occurred at 21:16 UTC on 8 June 1961. A
Thor DM-21 Agena-B rocket was used, flying from
launch pad 75-3-4 at the
Vandenberg Air Force Base Vandenberg may refer to:
* Vandenberg (surname), including a list of people with the name
* USNS ''General Hoyt S. Vandenberg'' (T-AGM-10), transport ship in the United States Navy, sank as an artificial reef in Key West, Florida
* Vandenberg Sp ...
.
Thor performance was normal and cutoff and staging occurred on time, but the Agena suffered a massive power supply failure during ascent. Since the power failure had caused loss of Agena telemetry data, it was unclear exactly what happened following staging or if engine start ever occurred. Radar tracking indicated that the stage was on a ballistic trajectory and tumbling. It impacted the Pacific Ocean some 400 miles downrange.
Discoverer 24 was to have operated in a
low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...
. It had a mass of ,
and was equipped with a
frame camera with a
focal length of , which had a maximum resolution of .
Images would have been recorded onto film, and returned in a
Satellite Recovery Vehicle, before the satellite ceased operations. The Satellite Recovery Vehicle carried aboard Discoverer 24 was SRV-541.
References
Spacecraft launched in 1961
Satellite launch failures
{{US-spacecraft-stub