To anyone that claims that the U.S. Government is incapable of keeping secrets, one only needs to point out the story behind the National Reconnaissance Office.
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) was established in 1961 for the purpose of collecting and managing the intelligence collected by U.S. spy satellites. It wasn’t until 1992, 31 years later, that the Department of Defense (DoD) finally admitted to the public that there was an agency called the National Reconnaissance Office.
The trigger for the creation of the NRO was obvious – the shootdown of U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers over the Soviet Union in 1960. Satellites provided a better alternative due to the fact that images could be taken more often, and no human lives had to be put at risk. At the time, the Air Force had a program called SAMOS, which proposed different options for transmitting (or transporting) the images back to Earth. The CIA spy satellite program was called CORONA, and it utilized a configuration where film canisters (or other payload) would be returned to earth via a capsule equipped with a parachute.
Out of the political and military urgency of the situation came a highly classified, compartmentalized Top Secret organization that would control and manage national reconnaissance. Throughout the 1970's, spy satellites captured high resolution images of high value targets (particularly the Soviet Union) and dropped the film canisters into the atmosphere via a "recovery" module with a parachute.
In general, the overall mission of these spy satellites was successful. Throughout the Cold War, these satellites successfully performed the following tasks performed by CORONA.
- -> Imaged Soviet ICBM complexes
- -> Imaged each Soviet submarines and bases
- -> Imaged Soviet bombers and fighters
- -> Identified the locations of Soviet missiles around the world
- -> Identified Soviet weapon storage facilities
- -> Identified China's missile launching sites
- -> Identified the Soviet Union's missile batteries
- -> Identified the Plesetsk Missile Test Range
- -> Much more...
A source familiar with the program and the retrieval of numerous film canisters told Top Secret Writers that a number of times the parachutes did not deploy, and the canisters (about the size of a small Volkswagen car) would burn up upon re-entry and crass in various spots around the country.
To see how dramatically the technology has changed through the years, take a look at a satellite image released by the Department of Defense during Operation Desert Fox.
Technology is much more advanced in modern spy satellite systems (the image above was from 1998). Today's spy satellites include infrared and night vision capabilities, as two examples of improvements. Also, delivery mechanisms are obviously no longer canister recovery of film. Instead, imagery is transmitted in highly encrypted form down to a receiver base facility on the ground.
These advanced capabilities obviously make it possible for spy satellites to take imagery of living entities inside buildings or under foliage cover. As mentioned previously at TSW, these capabilities led to some within the U.S. government to propose using these satellites to support domestic law enforcement, as well as monitoring for foreign agents. However, the uproar from Civil Liberties groups and supporters forced the shelving of those plans.
CORONA is a perfect example of how the U.S. Government was able to keep the existence of the National Reconnaissance Office a secret for many years, until the Washington Post published an article publicly mentioning the organization in the early 90's. Today, the existence of the NRO is no longer a secret, however the GEOINT (Geospacial Intelligence) and the SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) is highly classified.
Ryan Dube is editor-in-chief of TSW and an electrical engineer in the automation industry. He spends his time investigating declassified government documents, legends and conspiracy theories. Ryan has 374 post(s) at Top Secret Writers
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