RECONNAISSANCE

Satellites

Articles

1996 - 1998

Aerospace Daily. Editors. "DARPA Eyes Low-Cost Radar Satellite Constellation." 2 Jun. 1997, 341-342.

Anselmo, Joseph C. "U.S., Allied Collaboration Urged for Intel Satellites." Aviation Week & Space Technology, 4 Mar. 1996, 25.

The Presidential commission has recommended closer American collaboration with its allies in satellite reconnaissance. The object is to reduce the costs of these expensive systems.

Anselmo, Joseph C., and Philip J. Klass. "NRO Embraces Sigint Smallsats." Aviation Week & Space Technology, 29 Sep. 1997, 35.

Brown, Stuart F. "America's First Eyes in Space." Popular Science, Feb. 1996, 42-47.

This article is keyed to the release of the Corona photographs. It surveys briefly the development of the U.S. reconnaissance program, and is accompanied by a number of photographs.

Campbell, Duncan. "Hiding from the Spies in the Sky." The Guardian, 4 Jun. 1998. [http://www.guardian.co.uk]

Over five years ago, retired CIA analyst Allen Thomson "wrote a detailed study showing how the US strategy of depending on a few, expensive satellites for reconnaissance was flawed.... Thomson warned that 'the presumption that reconnaissance satellites can operate covertly is obsolete'.... 'Tracking US reconnaissance satellites can provide valuable support to a hostile country's concealment and deception programmes,' says Thomson, echoing his words of five years ago." The Indian nuclear tests have "spectacularly vindicated" his warning.

Chien, Philip. "High Spies." Popular Mechanics, Feb. 1996, 47-51.

This article is keyed to the release of the Corona photographs. It surveys the development of the U.S. reconnaissance program, and is accompanied by a number of photographs. It also offers advice to amateur satellite watchers: "Any classified launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base at a compass heading of 189 [degrees] is almost certainly a photorecon spacecraft.... [S]uch a launch would put the spacecraft into a Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 144 miles."

Covault, Craig.

1. "Advanced KH-11 Broadens U.S. Recon Capability." Aviation Week & Space Technology, 6 Jan. 1997, 24-25.

2. "Eavesdropping Satellite Parked Over Crisis Zone." Aviation Week & Space Technology, 18 May 1998, 30.

3. "Titan Explosion Destroys Secret 'Mercury' Sigint." Aviation Week & Space Technology, 17 Aug. 1998, 28.

Day, Dwayne A. "A Failed Phoenix: The KH-6 LANYARD Reconnaissance Satellite." Spaceflight 39, no. 5 (May 1997): 170-174.

Diamond, John M. "Problems and Prospects in U.S. Imagery Intelligence." National Security Studies Quarterly, Spring 1997.

The discussion is of U.S. space-based imagery intelligence.

Fulghum, David A., and Joseph C. Anselmo. "DARPA Pitches Small Sats for Tactical Reconnaissance." Aviation Week & Space Technology, Mar. 1998, 24.

Gaffney, Timothy R. "'Missile Gap' Was Myth: A Reconnaissance Expert Tells About a Super-Secret CIA Spy Operation." Dayton Daily News, 18 Mar. 1998, 1B, 2B.

Report on comments about Corona system made by Dino Brugioni in visit to and lecture at the U.S. Air Force Museum, 17 March 1998.

Hall, R.C. "Post War Strategic Reconnaissance and the Genesis of Project Corona." In Corona -- Between the Earth and the Sun: The First NRO Reconnaissance Eye in Space, ed. Robert A. McDonald, 25-58. Bethesda, MD: American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 1997.

Kimble, Kerry L. [LTCOL/USA] "CORONA: The First U.S. Photoreconnaissance Satellite." Military Intelligence 23, no. 3 (Jul.-Sep. 1997): 46-49.

This is a basic review of the Corona program and some of its accomplishments.

McDonald, Robert A. "Corona, Argon, and Lanyard: A Revolution for US Overhead Reconnaissance." In Corona -- Between the Earth and the Sun: The First NRO Reconnaissance Eye in Space, ed. Robert A. McDonald, 61-74. Bethesda, MD: American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 1997.

Pincus, Walter.

1. "Panel Set Up by CIA Recommends Building Smaller, Cheaper Spy Satellites." Washington Post, 30 Jun. 1996, A11.

2. "Smaller Spy Satellites May Give U.S. Stealth Capability Over Trouble Spots." Washington Post, 1 Feb. 1998, A9.

Some new generation satellites, beginning in 2003, "may be equipped with stealth technology so they cannot be tracked by radar, several sources said. But other sources doubt a way has been found to prevent detection of the satellites."

Robinson, Clarence A., Jr.

1. "Commercial Satellites Bolster National Intelligence Imagery." Signal, May 1997, 21 ff.

2. "Vital Spy Satellites Protect National Security Interests." Signal, Apr. 1997, 40-43.

Robinson reviews the U.S. spy satellite program from the early days to the present, and notes the NRO's role in collecting and collating the imagery received from space.

Ruffner, Kevin C. "CORONA and the Intelligence Community: Declassification's Great Leap Forward." Studies in Intelligence 39, no. 5 (1996): 61-69.

Ruffner tells the story of the effort to prepare the materials released to the public on 23-24 May 1995.

Shulman, Seth. "Code Name: CORONA." Technology Review, Oct. 1996, 22-25, 28-32.

This is primarily a look at the early days of the Corona photo-reconnaissance satellite project through the eyes of Walter Levison and Frank Madden. The article strays in its later pages into an echoing of the tedious-but-not-completely-unfounded complaints of the Federation of Atomic Scientists about government secrecy.

Sweetman, Bill. "Spies in the Sky." Popular Science, Apr. 1997, 42-48.

This is a very good, brief walk-through of the U.S. "spy" satellite inventory, past and present. Included are imagery (photographic and radar), signals intelligence, and the Navy Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS) satellites. The author acknowledges that most of the technical details come from the database of John Pike and Charles Vick at the Federation of American Scientists, which has been developed from public sources.

Wheelon, Albert D. ("Bud") "Corona: The First Reconnaissance Satellites." Physics Today, Feb. 1997, 24-30.

This is an excellent brief presentation addressing the development, operation, and significance of the Corona photoreconnaissance satellite. Wheelon concludes that Corona's photography "assumed a decisive role in the cold war analogous to that of the breaking of German cipher machine codes in World War II." Although most of the details in this article are readily available in other media, Wheelon's position as DDS&T from 1962 to 1966 makes his discussion particularly useful. The article is based on Wheelon's speech at the conference where much of the Corona photography was made public: "Piercing the Curtain: Corona and the Revolution in Intelligence," Washington, DC, 23 May 1995, under the sponsorship of George Washington University and the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence.

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