CORONA: Success for Space Reconnaissance,
A Look into the Cold War, and a Revolution for
Intelligence
ABSTRACT
Robert A. McDonald
This article was published as part of the CORONA
Program's Thirty-Fifth Anniversary Commemoration,
which was celebrated at the Smithsonian National
Air & Space Museum on May 24, 1995. The celebration
was cosponsored by the National Reconnaissance
Office, the National Air and Space Museum, and
the National Space Club. The Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA), the United States Air Force (USAF),
and the American Society for Photogrammetry and
Remote Sensing (ASPRS) were cooperating organizations.
CORONA was America's first operational space
reconnaissance project. Its first successful mission
was on August 18, 1960, and it operated for almost
twelve years during the Cold War. It was developed
as a highly classified program under the joint
management of the CIA and the USAF, a relationship
that evolved into the National Reconnaissance
Office (NRO).
This article offers an historical framework
for CORONA's development, a discussion of the
involved camera systems, a review of CORONA's
contributions to US national security, and a survey
of the potential use for declassified CORONA imagery
in applications associated with environmental
and other traditional civilian remote sensing
tasks. Seven appendices to the article provide
detailed tables with information about CORONA's
missions and camera systems. The article includes
fourteen figures that depict original CORONA images
plus seven other figures that are photographs,
diagrams, and charts. Nine of the figures that
are CORONA images are included as part of this
abstract:
Figure 3. An SA-2
Launch Site Near Chelyabinsk, USSR.
Figure 4. Mys Shmidta
Air Field, USSR
Figure 5. Soviet Solid
Rocket Motor Production Plant Near Biysk, USSR
Figure 12. Chinese
Nuclear Test Sit At Lop Nor, China
Figure 19. The Pentagon,
Washington, DC
Figure 20. Dolon Air
Field, USSR
Copyright 1995 by American Society for Photogrammetry
and Remote Sensing. Permission granted to use
portions or all of this abstract provided the
standard citation is used and credit given to
the American Society for Photogrammetry. The full
article was published in Photogrammetric Engineering
& Remote Sensing, Vol 61, No. 6, June
1995. For copies of the article, please contact
the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote
Sensing, 5410 Grosvenor La., Suite 210, Bethesda,
MD 20814-2160.
R. A. McDonald is a Professor of National Security
Policy & Psychology at the National War College,
Ft. McNair, Washington, DC 20319-6000.
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