Codename HEXAGON: Inside the Secret Satellite Program with Phil Pressel
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- Опубліковано 2 тра 2023
- Imagine a vehicle orbiting the earth taking photographs. Now imagine two film reels, each holding 30 miles of film. Now imagine the exposed film being dropped in a container from 100 miles above the earth. Imagine a skilled pilot catching the container in mid-air with a net pulling it into a plane and returning it to earth for skilled analysis. Now imagine this happening over and over again. That’s the core of the HEXAGON satellite program.
Join us today in person, to hear about the US’s last film-based intelligence spy satellite program directly from Phil Pressel. Pressel was the project engineer in charge of the design of the formerly top-secret Hexagon KH-9 spy satellite’s stereo cameras. The Hexagon satellite was an invaluable asset providing photographic intelligence information during the Cold War.
Pressel’s presentation will show photographs that the system took of some Russian military assets and of some cities. Hexagon was responsible for President Nixon signing the SALT treaty and allowing President Reagan to say, “trust but verify.” It was also one of America’s best and most successful spy satellites. Pressel’s book Meeting the Challenge, the Hexagon KH-9 Reconnaissance Satellite was published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) in 2013.
The program was declassified in 2011 by the RO/CIA in 2011, which is why Pressel can talk about it.
After his talk, guests will have a chance to see the Museum’s own HEXAGON Take-Up Reel.
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I Have seen a few Interviews with Dr. Pressel and as a citizen scientist and ex government contractor I loved the work. So it touches and moves me deeply to see him unwell. However I am glad and greatly heartened to see that he is still alive and Actively sharing the wide depth of his knowledge and wisdom
His body may be getting weaker, but his mind is as strong as ever! 😁
You can declassify the components of the KH-9 but you can't declassify the resolution of the films is mindblowing.
Great presentation. Enjoyed his references to Lockheed Missiles and Space at Sunnyvale. I did some non-classified work in the late 80's and early 90's. You could work at Lockheed and be clueless what stuff were used on. My lead man said to me one day, you ever notice you see large tractor trailers going in and out of here?...come to think of it......them some pretty big hangers across the street at Moffitt field.
Such a great talk, though I wonder what happened to Mr. Pressel's fingers and feet? The last time I saw him I remember he was standing next to a Hexagon satellite.
Very interesting video, surprised all that info was de-classified.
Yea indeed you did do “quite a bit better” reading a newspaper over a mans shoulder.. quite the scoop or should that be scope.. though it’s realtime remote processing and access that really should have been showcased - still the grass is always redder at the right wavelength-
My father’s lineage date back to the days of John Dee during Elizabeth I reign and my great, great, great, great grandpa conducted British RFC aerial observations in WWI - and my grandpa owned a NY / Denver based optics company during the 40’s-60’s- great presentation, really interesting stuff!
Wildly interesting man and topic!!!!
Hexagon was the second spy satellite program. Corona was very successful during the 1960s. Corona was declassified in 1997 by the Clinton Administration.
The mushroom patch was also called the freezer. When a classified employee was between projects, they spent their day in the freezer.
The classified and compartmented work environment at Perkin Elmer was amazing. My father was at P-E from 1969-1987 as a representative for the main contractor, Lockheed Missiles and Space. He worked on the integration of the camera with the vehicle and the vibration and other forces of launch and orbit. Phil Pressel told me he never met my father during those 18 years. My father had previously been at ITek for the Corona Program. Other than Phil, very few of the engineers are alive today.
For over a decade, I've been gathering information regarding the CORONA program for a book. I was a Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum docent at the National Mall Building from 2009 - 2012. I raised the issue that so many of the talented scientists and engineers on the CORONA program were dying before their stories were told. This is a big loss.
@@genenelson125 Yes, all of my father's coworkers have passed, the last, Charlie Cox passed in 2012. Many had died near the time Corona was declassified. The mortality data for aerospace engineers said the average age of death was 67. My father lived to 78, Charlie lived to 83. The rigors of top secret aerospace work took a toll on longevity of the workers. Even Hexagon engineers are mostly gone. Most of the engineers were older because they are the only ones with a work history to qualify for the ultra secret Top Secret SCI classification. Younger employees could not qualify for the security clearance.
The Harmony of Allah striked Judeo-Masons...
@@DaniyarAlibayev And fell flat on his hidden face. The Judeo-Christian world lives on.
@@idadho
Judah is not Christ. Opposite Laws.
Phil Pressel's 2013 book on Hexagon is only available in Hardcover on November 3, 2023. So, that's what I ordered.
This was a great video with a great story and Phil Pressel really knows how to make it funny and entertaining! It's too bad that so much of the stuff is still classified. Maybe the U.S. intelligence community has a bit of a problem with overclassification?
Hey guys love you 💕. Non sequitur but here's my idea. I've been volunteering at the food bank for a while. Not currently a baddie are participant but I know a few. So what I'm going to do or ask them for money for the food bank. Arrange a time. To actually do a dead drop with a glove in the park. I'm going to put your ideas to good use. Thanks to Tony and Jonah. I'm actually use these tactics to feed people what do you think?😊 It's going to be to school for spy school 🎒.
...well we care about that numerological data..
what if analog cameras change to a digital camera
Very interesting. And how Kodak employees were kept not curious? CIA sent employees to Kodak? It was so advanced that anybody would ask, for which camera is that? He made this amazing satélite and could not have a piece of the film after it was desclassified? Don’t you hate employers like that? 50 years to talk with limitations. Today satélites wall be available to public knowledge in 100 years for sure.
Back in 2023 our satélites were so good that could see anybody taking a shower.
I have an impression U.S is too paranoid or drama queens.
What a big deal to give this scientist material to say hey U.S rocks?
And I almost died for it it looks like hahaha what a bunch of s***
🙏🙏🌼🍎🍎🥬🍐🍏🍊👌🥭🥦🍓🌻😂😂🌈🌴🥕🍂🍎👌
Why wouldn't one content themselves with exploiting weak points... in back door security encryption "Block-Chains". ..And create a through-line comms transition pattern...that leap over and exploit this war of attrition between the West and eastern European power brokers!... to reach over ...all the way down the Nile shute to the heart of Kigali's own FM/AM secured channels!... and I'm not even sparsed in communication techs...but it's about finding ways to create a sort of a "Parallel Short Wave" ....mode of transition of signals and Intel...bypassing the whole "Middlemen Apparatus and protocols".. also achieve all that with minimal or non-existent residual data leftovers
The moderator reminds me of a bad elementry school teacher.
I heard there is a female Rambo code name NotMyFHair. Is she retired or active ? I am so retarda. I f she Rambo was active would be named the worse spy ever . Which country she was?
Ruzzia, the terrorist state!