{"id":1057,"date":"2015-03-03T00:14:49","date_gmt":"2015-03-03T00:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/?p=1057"},"modified":"2015-03-04T17:58:29","modified_gmt":"2015-03-04T17:58:29","slug":"recovering-a-secret-spy-satellite-capsule-from-underwater-ice-station-zebra-16400-feet-below","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/recovering-a-secret-spy-satellite-capsule-from-underwater-ice-station-zebra-16400-feet-below\/","title":{"rendered":"Recovering a Secret Spy Satellite Capsule from Underwater Ice Station Zebra – 16,400 Feet below"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/h3>\n

The Trieste II (DSV-1), the Navy\u2019s most advanced deep sea submersible at the time, surfaced about 350 miles north of the Hawaiian Islands in the pre-dawn hours of 26 April 1972 after recovering a mysterious item. Publicly called a \u201cdata package,\u201d the object was actually part of a U.S. spy satellite, codenamed HEXAGON. Before today\u2019s digital technology, photoreconnaissance satellites used film, which returned to Earth in capsules ejected from the satellite. The capsules, called \u201cbuckets,\u201d reentered Earth\u2019s atmosphere and deployed a parachute to slow their descent. During the first HEXAGON mission in 1971, the parachute broke off causing the bucket to crash into the ocean. This release includes photos of the capsule on the ocean floor, pictures of the Trieste II (DSV-1), and an article recounting the deepest undersea salvage then attempted. We also linked to the Naval Undersea Museum, where the Trieste II (DSV-1) is on permanent display.<\/p>\n

\"\" An Underwater Ice Station Zebra: Recovering a Secret Spy Satellite Capsule from Booklet cover of Underwater Ice Station Zebra16,400 Feet below the Pacific Ocean<\/a> [36 Pages, 6.21mb]<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Declassified CIA Documents<\/h3>\n

\"\" 1971-07-10 – Cable 2969<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-07-11 – Cable 2972<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-07-11a – Cable 2987<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-07-12 – Cable 1311<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-07-27 – Cable 3260<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-07-28 – RV-3 Recovery Planning Meeting<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-08-04 – Cable 9097 Recovery of RV-3<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-08-05 – Effect of Salt Water on Beryllium<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-08-05a – Penetration of the RV into the Ocean Bottom<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-08-10 – Deep Sea Recovery of Hexagon Reentry Vehicle<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-08-13 – Cable 1527 RV-3 Impact Point<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-08-18 – Deep Sea Recovery of Hexagon Reentry Vehicle<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-08-23 – Cable 4960<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-09-01 – Perkin-Elmer Proposal for Recovery of RV3 of SV-1<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-09-08 – Cable 8164<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-09-13 – Cable 3709<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-09-14 – Status of Recovery Effort as of 14Sep71<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-09-16 – Cable 2150<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-09-17 – Cable 1223<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-10-07 – Cable 2266<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-10-28 – Cable 5446<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-10-28a – Cable 2338<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-11-18 – Cable 26767<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1971-12-10 – 1201 RV-3 Recovery<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1972-01-12 – Notes on Conversation of 11 Jan 72<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1972-01-13 – Cable 8209<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1972-01-31 – Trip Report Recovery of RV3<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1972-02-02 – Prognosis for RV-3 Recovery Operations<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1972-02-03 – Prognosis for RV-3 Recovery Operations<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1972-02-14 – Status of RV-3 Recovery Operations<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1972-03-15 – Recovery Operations RV-3 of SV-1<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1972-03-29 – Recovery Operations RV-3 of SV-1<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1972-04-20 – Cable 2193<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1972-04-27 – Cable 1097<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1972-05-02 – Cable 3009<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1972-05-24 – Deep Sea Recovery of Hexagon Recovery Vehicle 1201-3 With Four Attachments<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" 1972-07-28 – Report on the Analyses of Recovered 1201-3 Film Samples<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a>Declassified NRO Documents<\/h3>\n

\"\" All NRO documents declassified on this subject<\/a> [138 Pages, 5.97mb]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction The Trieste II (DSV-1), the Navy\u2019s most advanced deep sea submersible at the time, surfaced about 350 miles north of the Hawaiian Islands in the pre-dawn hours of 26 April 1972 after recovering a mysterious item. Publicly called a \u201cdata package,\u201d the object was actually part of a U.S. spy satellite, codenamed HEXAGON. Before<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","transcript_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,4,37],"tags":[525,524,522],"class_list":{"0":"post-1057","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cold-war-era","8":"category-intelligence","9":"category-spy-satellites-and-the-nro","10":"tag-hexagon","11":"tag-recovery","12":"tag-spy-satellite"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/KH-9_HEXAGON_satellite.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}