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Other Designations: Program 720. Manufacturer's Designation: Program 472. Code Name: Aquacade. Class: SIGINT. Destination: Medium Earth Orbit. Nation: USA. Agency: U.S. Air Force. Rhyolite geostationary signals intelligence satellites were positioned to intercept communications transmissions, especially line-of-sight microwave links, from the Soviet Union and China. For this purpose they were stationed in geosynchronous orbits over Indonesia. Other sources indicate that the primary mission was telemetry interception. The project became unusually public as it was the key element in the espionage trial of the 'Falcon and the Snowman', Boyce and Lee. Rhyolite was also known as Program 720, Program 472, and Aquacade.
The primary downlink station was named Pine Gap, in isolated Alice Springs, Australia. This was to prevent Soviet or Chinese spies from intercepting the interceptions ... and then being able to determine which of their communications were being listened to. The signal streams received at Pine Gap would be encrypted, then beamed via another geosynchronous satellite to Fort Meade for code breaking and signal and traffic analysis. Typical orbit: 31058 km circular orbit, 7.2 deg inclination. Mass: 700 kg (1,540 lb). Associated Launch Vehicle: Atlas / Agena D SLV-3A.
Rhyolite Chronology
Bibliography and Further Reading - McDowell, Jonathon, Quest, "US Reconnaissance Satellite Programs Part 2", 1995, Volume 4, Issue 4, page 49.
- McDowell, Jonathan, Jonathan's Space Home Page, Harvard University, 1997-present. Jonathan McDowell's complete on-line listing of all objects orbited and over 20,000 rocket launches Accessed at: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html.
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