thumb|upright=1.0|right|A KH-6 LANYARD main features
thumb|280x280px|Thor SLV-2A Agena D (Thor 360) with KH-6 8001 on 18 March 1963
thumb|280x280px|Thor-SLV2A Agena-D (Thor 364) with KH-6 2 on 18 May 1963
BYEMAN codenamed LANYARD, the KH-6 was the unsuccessful first attempt to develop and deploy a very high-resolution optical reconnaissance satellite by the United States National Reconnaissance Office. Launches and launch attempts spanned the period from March to July 1963. The project was quickly put together to get imagery of a site near Leningrad suspected of having anti-ballistic missiles.
The satellite carried Itek's "E-5" camera developed for the SAMOS program, which had been cancelled. The camera had a focal length of and could discern objects on the ground in size. The ground swath of the camera was . The satellite weighed , and had a single re-entry vehicle in which exposed film was returned to earth for a mid-air aircraft recovery.
The KH-6 was manufactured by Lockheed Martin and launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Thor-Agena D launch vehicles.
Launches
KH-6 8001 was launched from Vandenberg AFB aboard a Thor-Agena D launch vehicle (Thor 360) at 00:00:00 GMT on 18 March 1963. It was the first of three KH-6 LANYARD launches. This mission was a failure because the Agena guidance system failed.
KH-6 8003 was launched from Vandenberg AFB aboard a Thor-Agena D rocket (Thor 382) The mission was deemed a success but the image quality was poor. The film canister contained over 2,250 feet of film with 910 photographic frames.