SAMOS-F or Air Force Program 102 refers to a series of
SIGINT
Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of '' signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ...
reconnaissance satellites launched and operated by the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...
and
National Reconnaissance Office
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is a member of the United States Intelligence Community and an agency of the United States Department of Defense which designs, builds, launches, and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the U.S. fe ...
during the 1960s. Initial priorities (in decreasing order) were to monitor
radio waves in the frequency bands 2.5-3.2 GHz (
S band), 9.0-10 GHz (
X band), and 59-650 MHz. The intercepted data and their location were stored on magnetic tape, and subsequently transmitted to tracking and acquisition ground stations. Tracking stations were located in the NE (
New Boston, New Hampshire
New Boston is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 6,108 at the 2020 census, up from 5,321 at the 2010 census. New Boston is home to the annual Hillsborough County Agricultural Fair and the Molly Stark ...
), Central (
Ottumwa, Iowa), and NW (
Fort Stevens (Oregon)
Fort Stevens was an American military installation that guarded the mouth of the Columbia River in the state of Oregon. Built near the end of the American Civil War, it was named for a slain Civil War general and former Washington Territory gove ...
) of the continental United States, with additional test sites at
Vandenberg AFB
Vandenberg Space Force Base , previously Vandenberg Air Force Base, is a United States Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California. Established in 1941, Vandenberg Space Force Base is a space launch base, launching spacecraft from th ...
, California, and at Ka'ena Point,
Oahu
Oahu () ( Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over two-thirds of the population of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The island of O†...
, Hawai.
The satellites are also called Agena ferrets and heavy ferrets. Approximately sixteen heavy ferrets were launched into
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 ...
s from
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 ...
between February 1962 and July 1971 aboard
Thor-Agena
Thor-Agena was a series of orbital launch vehicles. The launch vehicles used the Douglas-built Thor first stage and the Lockheed-built Agena second stages. They are thus cousins of the more-famous Thor-Deltas, which founded the Delta rocke ...
and
Thorad-Agena
The Thorad-Agena was an American expendable launch system, derived from the Thor and Delta rockets. The first stage of the rocket was a stretched Thor variant named "Long Tank Thrust Augmented Thor". The Long Tank Thor first stage was later adop ...
rockets. Almost everything about these satellites remains
classified.
Launch list
References
SAMOS F2an
from Gunter's space page
from Jonathan McDowell
*Dwayne Day, "Ferrets above: American signals intelligence satellites during the 1960s"
International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, 17 no. 3. p449-467 (2004)
{{US Reconnaissance Satellites
Signals intelligence satellites
Reconnaissance satellites of the United States
Satellite series
Military equipment introduced in the 1960s