Corona: The First American Photo Reconnaissance Satellite Program

In 2013, C-SPAN released the 1972 CIA documentary "The Corona Story", which tells the history of the first surveillance recovery of film from space.

The Corona program was officially classified top secret until 1992. In 1995, the photos taken from the Corona satellites were declassified under an Executive Order signed by President Bill Clinton.

It began when the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957, which monitored the flights of the American U-2 spy plane. At the time, the United States was interested in monitoring long range ballistic missiles in Russia. 

In 1958, Richard Bissell, the CIA Program Manager, and Osmond Ritlandfrom the Air Force, who both had worked on the U-2 spy plane project, held a conference with subcontractors Lockheed and General Electric, to discuss the required technologies to launch satellites into space, achieve an acceptable position in orbit and for the recovery of film.

The Corona project was pushed forward rapidly and President Eisenhower authorized the program following the shooting down of a U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union.

ITEK Corporation developed high-definition, panoramic cameras to meet the CIA's specifications. Each satellite carried two cameras with long focal length lens. Each camera had 8,000 feetof film.

Originally, the photos were retrieved from orbit via a re-entry capsule, designed by General Electric, which separated from the satellite and fell to Earth. A salt plug in the base of the capsule would dissolve after two days, allowing the capsule to sink if it was not picked up by the United States Navy. 

In some cases, photos were mysteriously lost. The movie "Ice Station Zebra" proposes a theory of what may have happened. The CIA and The Air Force later devised an improved aerial recovery system.

American intelligence used the Corona satellites for photographic surveillance of the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of Chinaand other areas from 1960 to 1972.

The programwas primarily interested in the development and deployment of Soviet long range ballistic missiles. Photos of 750 million square miles of Soviet territory revealed how many weapons the enemy had and its test facilities. The United Stated later used this information in negotiations during the SALT talks.

The firstdozen Corona satellites and their launches were publicized with disinformation. They were described as part of a space technologydevelopment program called the Discoverer program.

As a more discrete intelligence gathering process than the U2 spy plane, Corona revolutionized the process, and in turn similar programs are in use by the Defense Department and the CIA today.