Codenamed Lanyard, the KH-6 was a shortlived series of reconnaissance satellites produced by the United States from March to July 1963. The project was quickly put together to get imagery of a site near Tallinn suspected of having ICBMs. The satellite carried an "E-5" camera developed for the Samos program, which had been cancelled. The camera had a focal length of 1.67 meters and could discern objects on the ground 1.8 m in size. The ground swath of the camera was 14 km by 74 km. The KH-6 was manufactured by Lockheed.

Three launch attempts were made. One attempt failed and another did not use any film.

Corona and KH-5 (Argon) satellites were both in use during the period that the KH-6 was operational. It was followed by the KH-7 (Gambit).

References

• Mark Wade (August 9, 2003). KH-6. Encyclopedia Astronautica. Accessed April 23, 2004.