page_title: KH-7 Gambit
section_title: Functionality
hierarchical_section_title: KH-7 Gambit / Functionality
caption_attribution_description: English: KH-7 GAMBIT satelllite image of the Shuang Cheng Tzu Missile Center A (Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre)
context_page_description: BYEMAN codenamed GAMBIT, the KH-7 was a reconnaissance satellite used by the United States from July 1963 to June 1967. Like the older CORONA system, it acquired imagery intelligence by taking photographs and returning the undeveloped film to earth. It achieved a typical ground-resolution of 2 ft to 3 ft. Though most of the imagery from the KH-7 satellites was declassified in 2002, details of the satellite program remained classified until 2011.
  In its summary report following the conclusion of the program, the National Reconnaissance Office concluded that the GAMBIT program was considered highly successful in that it produced the first high-resolution satellite photography, 69.4% of the images having a resolution under 3 ft.; its record of successful launches, orbits, and recoveries far surpassed the records of earlier systems; and it advanced the state of the art to the point where follow-on larger systems could be developed and flown successfully. The report also stated that Gambit had provided the intelligence community with the first high-resolution satellite photography of denied areas, the intelligence value of which was considered "extremely high".
context_section_description: A high-resolution instrument, the KH-7 took detailed pictures of "hot spots" and most of its photographs are of Chinese and Soviet nuclear and missile installations, with smaller amounts of coverage of cities and harbors.  Most of the imagery from this camera, amounting to 19,000 images, was declassified in 2002 as a result of Executive order 12951, the same order which declassified Corona, and copies of the films were transferred to the U.S. Geological Survey's Earth Resources Observation Systems office.  Approximately 100 frames covering the state of Israel remain classified.
  In early 1964, the CIA toyed with the idea of using Gambit to photograph military installations in Cuba, but this was dismissed as unworkable as the satellites were primarily designed with higher-latitude Soviet territory in mind and because it would mean wasting an entire satellite on the Latin America-Caribbean area which had little else of interest to US intelligence services. It was decided that U-2 spyplane flights were more-than-adequate to provide coverage of Cuban activity.
caption: A KH-7 image of the Chinese Shuanchengtzu Missile Center A, May 1967.
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