Eye in the Sky: Story of the Corona Spy Satellites (Smithsonian History of Aviation & Spaceflight S.) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1560988304 ISBN 13: 9781560988304

Publisher: Smithsonian Books, 1998

Synopsis

Presenting the full story of the CORONA spy satellites' origins, Eye in the Sky explores the Cold War technology and far-reaching effects of the satellites on foreign policy and national security. Arguing that satellite reconnaissance was key to shaping the course of the Cold War, the book documents breakthroughs in intelligence gathering and achievements in space technology that rival the landing on the moon.

About this title

Review

"This book chronicles in satisfying detail the origins of US satellite reconnaissance by focusing on the pioneering CORONA program, under which some 800,000 satellite images were made between 1960 and 1972."--Scientific American

"Day (a research associate at the Space Policy Institute at George Washington Univ.), Logsdon (director of the Space Policy Institute), and Latell (editor of the CIA's journal Studies in Intelligence) have gathered together essays by many figures active in the program, producing a fascinating record of the evolution and impact of this crucial and revolutionary program."--Kirkus Reviews

From the Author

An insider's history of early U.S. reconnaissance programs.
Unlike previous books on American reconnaissance satellite programs, this book benefited from extensive cooperation from both the CIA and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). It is not simply a compilation of magazine and newspaper articles, many of them often filled with mistakes or incomplete data. It is based upon previously classified documents, interviews, and first-hand accounts from the participants in the program who can now tell their stories for the very first time. Indeed, the book features the first official published history of the NRO, written by the organization's former historian. It also features chapters on the benefits of satellite reconnaissance to the president and his advisors, the politics and international tensions which led to the creation of strategic reconnaissance, and the technical development of the hardware itself. There is also a chapter on the Soviet Zenit reconnaissance satellite which served as a counterpart to CORONA. Finally, the book features the words of many of the people who built, operated and used CORONA--people who are virtually unknown outside of the intelligence community, but legends within it.

The chapter on the technical history of the satellite (which I wrote) includes information on the various CORONA camera systems, known as KH-1, KH-2, KH-3, KH-4, KH-4A and KH-4B. There is also information on the KH-5 ARGON mapping camera and the KH-6 LANYARD "spotting" camera. The various SAMOS camera systems are also discussed. These include the E-1 and E-2 "readout" cameras, the canceled E-3 and E-4 cameras (a close-look and mapping system, respectively), and the previously unknown film-return versions of SAMOS, the E-5 and E-6 (or SAMOS 201). Details concerning E-5 and E-6 were only available through interviews and a few declassified documents. We now know that E-5 served as the basis for the later KH-6 LANYARD and that E-6, which was supposed to provide higher resolution imagery than the CORONA while retaining its search function, suffered a string of failures (as one participant told me, it had the nasty tendency to make smoking holes in the desert).

The book includes extensive photographs. We gained access to both official and personal photographs of the people and equipment--the vast majority of which have never been seen before. These photos include images of the various satellites (the first published photo of any complete CORONA spacecraft anywhere), technical drawings of the camera systems, and photos of the people and other equipment that contributed to the program. We strove to be as diverse as possible in our selection. For instance, we have a photograph of the recovery aircraft making its catch of the satellite, but also have photographs of the engineers who built the satellite celebrating afterward (these photos are among my personal favorites--they threw the program manager in a hotel swimming pool and jumped in after him).

In addition, there are a number of actual reconnaissance satellite photos published here for the first time. These include photos of the ABM facility at Sary Shagan, the N-1 lunar launch complex (with a Soviet moon rocket on the launch pad), the Los Angeles International Airport (filmed in stereo), an SA-2 surface-to-air missile site in the snow, a Hen House phased-array radar, the Soviet's own reconnaissance satellite factory (viewed from 90 miles overhead in wonderful detail) and numerous other facilities.

But while the book benefits greatly from the unique access we had to personal and official files, it attempts to present an unvarnished history of the first declassified satellite program--a program that was fraught by initial failures and later became part of a bureaucratic tug-of-war between agencies of the federal government. For instance, the first 12 satellites launched as part of the program (under the cover story of the Discoverer program) were all failures. Indeed, officials worried that the second satellite might even have been retrieved by the Soviets at Spitzbergen Island (more likely it simply landed in the ocean). As satellite reconnaissance increased in importance throughout the 1960s, the CIA and the Air Force struggled over who would control it. While the fights initially centered on other programs, CORONA became caught up in this struggle, primarily because it was the most successful program at that time and was returning the most useful information. Ultimately, the struggle died out and the CIA preserved a role in the satellite reconnaissance program. Although this fight has been hinted at previously, this is the first published account to provide many of the details of that clash--a fight among top-level CIA and Pentagon officials which is now legendary within the intelligence community.

Finally, the book includes the most complete and accurate list of CORONA launches ever compiled. This list is actually more extensive (and more accurate) than official lists released by the NRO following the declassification of the program. It was compiled by the foremost expert on American space launches, Jonathan McDowell.

Chapters:

PART ONE: THE CORONA STORY 1-Strategic Intelligence and U.S. Security: The Contributions of CORONA-Ernest R. May 2-CORONA: A Triumph of American Technology-Albert D. Wheelon 3-The Development and Improvement of the CORONA Satellite-Dwayne A. Day 4-Postwar Strategic Reconnaissance and the Genesis of CORONA-R. Cargill Hall 5-A Strategy for Reconnaissance: Dwight D. Eisenhower and Freedom of Space-Dwayne A. Day 6-The National Reconnaissance Office: Its Origins, Creation, and Early Years-Gerald Haines 7-Zenit: The Soviet Response to CORONA-Peter Gorin

PART TWO: VOICES OF THE CORONA PIONEERS 8-CORONA and the U.S. Presidents 9-The Origins and Evolution of the CORONA System 10-CORONA and the Revolution in Mapmaking 11-Exploiting CORONA Imagery: The Impact on Intelligence

Appendix A: Program Overview and Camera Data Appendix B: Launch Listings-Jonathan McDowell

About this edition

• Publisher: Smithsonian Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1560988304
• ISBN 13: 9781560988304
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320
• Editor: Day Dwayne A., Logsdon John M., Latell Brian