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By May 1960, the Corona program was well underway. There had been 11 launches, none of which had achieved mission success. Then, an incident occurred that added urgency to the mission--the shoot-down of a U-2 flight over the USSR on the first of May. With aerial photography now denied the Nation, the United States urgently needed an alternative and Corona became that alternative. While the program began as an interim, short-term, high-risk effort, it far exceeded early expectations and would deliver, as history attests, better quality and more plentiful photo reconnaissance than the U-2.