HEXAGON KH-9 Film Recovery Vehicle

KH-9 (BYEMAN codename HEXAGON), commonly known as Big Bird[1] or Keyhole-9, was a series of photographic reconnaissance satellites launched by the United States between 1971 and 1986. Of twenty launch attempts by the National Reconnaissance Office, all but one were successful.[2] Photographic film aboard the KH-9 was sent back to Earth in recoverable film return capsules for processing and interpretation. The best ground resolution achieved by the main cameras was better than 0.6 meters.[3]

They are also officially known as the Broad Coverage Photo Reconnaissance satellites (Code 467), built by Lockheed Corporation for the National Reconnaissance Office.[1]

The KH-9 was declassified in September 2011 and an example was put on public display for a single day on September 17, 2011 in the parking lot of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum.[4][5][6]

On January 26, 2012 the National Museum of the United States Air Force put a KH-9 on public display along with its predecessors the KH-7 and KH-8.

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