A History of Satellite Reconnaissance. Volume 1. CORONA (REDACTED)
Abstract
Although largely concerned with Corona, this volume also includes discussions of the origins of satellite reconnaissance and of the interactions between the Corona program and various other of the overflight activities of the National Reconnaissance Program and its organizational predecessors , including the Central Intelligence Agency. The antecedents of Corona and its adolescent years are treated in Chapters I and II, respectively. Chapter III opens with a cursory review of Corona activities before 1961, but is mostly concerned with the operations and subsequent evolution of the Corona system through its final mission in May 1972. Although they are interrelated, each of the three chapters can stand alone. Some matters of considerable importance to Corona are dealt with inadequately or not at all in this volume. Each omission of that sort was deliberate. Issues of management policy, program proprietorship, and reconnaissance program organization were frequent intruders in the Corona program, but because they had a unity of their own, and because such issues generally involved far more than Corona, their treatment has mostly been relegated to Volume V. So with cover and security matters; although some incidents and events directly relevant to concealment of Corona program activity have been described in this volume, those topics are not explicitly discussed. Such specialized aspects of satellite reconnaissance operations as vulnerability, countermeasures, and the exploitation of returned photography have also been considered only in passing. Technical matters like the carriage of "piggyback payloads," improvements in photochemistry and film, and the development of reentry and recovery machinery have been little mentioned. They require specialized historical coverage and are not integrals of Corona. Some readers may wish to proceed directly to Chapter In, which covers Corona matters from the time of first successful operation to the end of the program.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1973
- Accession Number
- ADA606619
Entities
People
- Robert Perry
Organizations
- National Reconnaissance Office