America's First Spy Satellites
Curtis Peebles is empowering readers with the newly declassified information on how the first American satellites were set into use for intelligence gathering. Through his book, "The Corona Project: America's First Spy Satellites", the author gives detailed information on the birth of the satellite program by watching the Corona project from its beginnings in the late 1940s to the declassification of the project and its exhibitions at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. The book begins with a look into World War II and how the event of Pearl Harbor pressed the need for aerial reconnaissance. The first chapter gives the different technological challenges that had to be faced in order to achieve aerospace superiority. This chapter takes a close look into the development of the WS-117L reconnaissance satellite and how the two projects are related. The main thrust that the project received was from the launch of Sputnik I. With the Soviets now seemingly ahead, the author explains how the project was taken away from the Air Force who was failing with the WS-117L and passed the mission onto the CIA for the development of the Corona satellites. Peebles explains that the difference between the two programs
One of the most impressive parts of this book that I found was the continuous references that Peebles makes to personal memorandums and conversations held by officials of the project's years. The great accomplishment made in the twelve years of the project is definitely the improved resolution from forty feet to six feet (although planned for two feet). These pages show that the satellite has progressed enough to properly confirm small fighter aircraft by the project's end. The author includes in the book an appendix that is invaluable to any satellite or space historian that gives extensive detailed information on each of the 145 Corona flights. The author's appendixes and charts give good insight into the timeline and the overall achievements of the program as well. "The Corona Project: America's First Spy Satellites" is a must read in order to fully understand the beginnings of imagery intelligence as well as the utilization of satellite platforms with the theory of spin stabilizing. Curtis Peebles makes a somewhat complicated program easy to understand by starting from the basics and then building the reader's knowledge on what is currently being instructed in the text. Peebles covers the continuing evolution of the KH or "Key Hole" cameras used aboard the Corona satellites. The author gives a good historical playback of the project by reviewing the lessons and the continuing importance of the imagery taken in the Corona years for comparative coverage today. The bread and butter of the information provided in the text can be found in chapters seven through nine. With the new satellite photos of the 1960s, the entire battlefield could be outlined and military forces could be counted. The engineering team faced numerous challenges in the task of getting the satellites into orbit as explained in chapter three. This type of progress, nearly 300 percent improvement, in such a short period of time has not been experienced since. The detailed mission catalog shows the timeline of how the different missions covered the earth's surface as well as how the capabilities (or camera resolution) improved overtime. is that the WS-117L promised almost real-time through radio-transmitted imagery while the Corona missions would drop the film from the nose cone for development.
Common topics in this essay:
Key Hole,
Air Force,
Project Peebles,
Furthermore Peebles,
Spy Satellites,
Curtis Peebles,
Pearl Harbor,
Soviet Union,
corona project,
Sputnik Soviets,
Space Museum,
detailed information,
earth's surface,
imagery intelligence,
aerial reconnaissance,
corona satellites,
america's spy satellites,
satellite program,
information provided,
satellites author,
peebles makes,
corona project america's,
key hole cameras,
project america's spy,
resolution forty feet,
|
Acceptance Essays
