CANYON refers to a series of seven United States spy satellite

Spy satellite

A spy satellite is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications....

s launched between 1968 and 1977. Also known as AFP-827 , the satellites were developed with the participation of the Air Force

United States Air Force

The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

. The Canyon project is credited as being the first American satellite system tasked for COMINT.

The satellites weighed 700 kg and were launched from Atlas/Agena D

Atlas (rocket family)

Atlas is a family of U.S. space launch vehicles. The original Atlas missile was designed in the late 1950s and produced by the Convair Division of General Dynamics, to be used as an intercontinental ballistic missile...

 rockets into near-geosynchronous orbit

Geosynchronous orbit

A geosynchronous orbit is an orbit around the Earth with an orbital period that matches the Earth's sidereal rotation period...

s. They carried large parabolic reflecting dishes, estimated at 10m in diameter. The Canyon satellites were eventually replaced with the next generation of COMINT satellites, the Vortex/Chalet series. The program remains classified

Classified information

Classified information is sensitive information to which access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of persons. A formal security clearance is required to handle classified documents or access classified data. The clearance process requires a satisfactory background investigation...

.

List of Launches

Name	Launch date	Alt. name	COSPAR COSPAR The Committee on Space Research was established by the International Council for Science in 1958.Among COSPAR's objectives are the promotion of scientific research in space on an international level, with emphasis on the free exchange of results, information, and opinions, and providing a forum,...  ID
Canyon 1	6 Aug 1968	OPS 2222	1968-063A
Canyon 2	13 April 1969	OPS 3148	1969-036A
Canyon 3	1 September 1970	OPS 7329	1970-069A
Canyon 4	4 December 1971	AFP-827, 1971-F13	failed to achieve orbit
Canyon 5	20 December 1972	OPS 9390	1972-101A
Canyon 6	18 June 1975	OPS 4966	1975-055A
Canyon 7	23 May 1977	OPS 9751	1977-038A

See also

• Rhyolite/Aquacade
  Rhyolite/Aquacade
  Rhyolite and later, Aquacade are reportedly code names for a class of SIGINT spy satellites operated by the National Reconnaissance Office for the United States Central Intelligence Agency. The National Security Agency was also reportedly involved...
  
   - Another SIGINT
  SIGINT
  Signals intelligence is intelligence-gathering by interception of signals, whether between people , whether involving electronic signals not directly used in communication , or combinations of the two...
  
   platform operated for the Central Intelligence Agency
  Central Intelligence Agency
  The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
  
  
• Vortex/Chalet - Canyon's successor

External links

• Gunter's Space Page - information on Canyon
• Spy satellites of the NSA