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Chronology Of The National Reconnaissance Office
Events 1950-1959 *28 February 1959 - Discoverer 1 I/CORONA is launched; mission is a failure due to problems with Agena upper stage 1960-1969 *15 January 1960 - 6594th Test Wing (Satellite) activated at Sunnyvale, California; will later be known as Air Force Satellite Control Facility, or the ''Blue Cube'', controlling many NRO CORONA satellite missions *22 June 1960 - Launch of GRAB Signals Intelligence satellite; first overhead intelligence gathering satellite *11 August 1960 - Discoverer XIII capsule successfully recovered; first man-made object retrieved from orbit (American flag) *18 August 1960 - Discoverer XIV/ CORONA M9009 launched; first totally successful mission; returned images of Mys Schmidta airfield *17 February 1961 - First launch of KH-5 ARGON camera system (M9014A); mission was partially successful *6 September 1961 - National Reconnaissance Office is established *13 December 1962 - First launch of POPPY SIGINT satellite *21 August 1964 - Last launch of KH ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Discoverer 1
Discoverer 1 was the first of a series of satellites which were part of the Corona (satellite), CORONA reconnaissance satellite program. It was launched on a Thor-Agena, Thor-Agena A rocket on 28 February 1959 at 21:49:16 GMT from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It was a prototype of the Corona (satellite), KH-1 satellite, but did not contain either a camera or a film capsule.Clayton K. S. Chun, ''Thunder Over the Horizon: From V-2 Rockets to Ballistic Missiles'' (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006), pp. 74–75 It was the first satellite launched toward the South Pole in an attempt to achieve a polar orbit, but was unsuccessful. A CIA report, later declassified, concluded that "Today, most people believe the Discoverer 1 landed somewhere near the South Pole". The Discover program was managed by the DARPA, Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the United States Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Defense and the United States Air Force, U.S. Air Force. The pri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
KH-5 ARGON
KH-5 ARGON was a series of reconnaissance satellites produced by the United States from February 1961 to August 1964. The KH-5 operated similarly to the CORONA (satellite), CORONA series of satellites, as it ejected a canister of photographic film. At least 12 missions were attempted, but at least 7 resulted in failure. The satellite was manufactured by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed. Launches used Thor-Agena launch vehicles flying from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Vandenberg Air Force Base, with the payload being integrated into the RM-81 Agena, Agena. Payload Different versions of the satellite varied in mass from . At least two missions deployed ELINT subsatellites. Ground resolution for the satellite was , with a swath of . The onboard camera had a focal length of 76 mm. The purpose of the system, which produced relatively low-resolution images compared to other spy satellites, was to provide imagery for cartography purposes. This was one of the tasks that had original ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian Patrick Regan
Brian Patrick Regan (born October 23, 1962, in New York City, New York) is a former master sergeant in the United States Air Force who was convicted of offering to sell secret information to foreign governments. Biography He was born October 23, 1962, in New York City, New York. His childhood has been characterised as a difficult one; due to having dyslexia and having an "odd" personality, he was frequently bullied and ridiculed by classmates and children in his neighbourhood. Espionage activity From July 1995 to August 2000, Regan worked as a USAF assignee at the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in Chantilly, Virginia, and was a signals intelligence specialist. He was forced into retirement in August 2000, having failed to accept an overseas deployment. In October 2000, he was hired by TRW Inc., but brought back to NRO and monitored. In 1999, he had begun downloading data from Intelink, and in total removed 20,000 pages, CD-ROMs and videotapes from NRO. Regan's financial sit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Shuttle Challenger
Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' (OV-099) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after HMS Challenger (1858), the commanding ship of a Challenger expedition, nineteenth-century scientific expedition that traveled the world, ''Challenger'' was the second Space Shuttle orbiter to fly into space after ''Space Shuttle Columbia, Columbia'', and launched on STS-6, its maiden flight in April 1983. It was destroyed in January 1986 soon after launch Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, in a disaster that killed all seven crewmembers aboard. Initially manufactured as a Test article (aerospace), test article not intended for spaceflight, it was used for ground testing of the Space Shuttle orbiter's structural design. However, after NASA found that their original plan to upgrade ''Space Shuttle Enterprise, Enterprise'' for spaceflight would be more expensive than upgrading ''Challenger'', the orbiter was pressed into operational service in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
STS-51L
STS-51-L was the disastrous 25th mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the final flight of Space Shuttle ''Challenger''. It was planned as the first Teacher in Space Project flight in addition to observing Halley's Comet for six days and performing a routine satellite deployment. The mission never achieved orbit; a structural failure during its ascent phase 73 seconds after launch from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B on January 28, 1986, destroyed the orbiter and killed all seven crew members—Commander Francis R. "Dick" Scobee, Pilot Michael J. Smith, Mission Specialists Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik and Ronald E. McNair, and Payload Specialists Gregory B. Jarvis and S. Christa McAuliffe. Immediately after the failure, President Ronald Reagan convened the Rogers Commission to determine the cause of the explosion. The failure of an O-ring seal on the starboard Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) was determined to have caused the shuttle to break up in fl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Carter served from 1971 to 1975 as the 76th governor of Georgia and from 1963 to 1967 in the Georgia State Senate. He was the List of presidents of the United States by age, longest-lived president in U.S. history and the first to reach the age of 100. Born in Plains, Georgia, Carter graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946 and joined the submarines in the United States Navy, submarine service before returning to his family's peanut farm. He was active in the civil rights movement, then served as state senator and governor before Jimmy Carter 1976 presidential campaign, running for president in 1976 United States presidential election, 1976. He secured the 1976 Democratic National Convention, Democratic nomination as a dark horse li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Kampiles
William Peter Kampiles (born December 21, 1954) is a former United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee during the Cold War known for selling a top secret KH-11 spy satellite manual in 1977. Early life Born to Greek parents, Kampiles grew up in Hegewisch, on the far south side of Chicago. Kampiles' family was poor and lived in a small rental apartment. His father died in 1964, when Kampiles was nine. He attended college with a state grant from his father's social security benefit, by working at the college cafeteria, and his mother's salary from working at the south side Ford factory in the cafeteria. Career While attending Indiana University, he was recruited by the CIA in 1977. He found his job, routing message traffic, to be boring, and quit after a year when a transfer failed. His friend George Joannides later testified that Kampiles had wanted to work in the covert section of the CIA, but would need to undertake the necessary training. Upon quitting, he s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Congressional Record
The ''Congressional Record'' is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, published by the United States Government Publishing Office and issued when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record Index is updated daily online and published monthly. At the end of a session of Congress, the daily editions are compiled in bound volumes constituting the permanent edition. Chapter 9 of Title 44 of the United States Code authorizes publication of the ''Congressional Record''. The ''Congressional Record'' consists of four sections: the United States House of Representatives, House section, the United States Senate, Senate section, the Extensions of Remarks, and, since the 1940s, the Daily Digest. At the back of each daily issue is the Daily Digest, which summarizes the day's floor and committee activities and serves as a table of contents for each issue. The House and Senate sections contain proceedings for the separate chambers of Congress. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poppy (satellite)
POPPY is the code name given to a series of U.S. intelligence satellites operated by the National Reconnaissance Office. The POPPY satellites recorded electronic signals intelligence (ELINT) data, targeting radar installations in the Soviet Union and Soviet naval ships at sea. The POPPY program was a continuation within NRO's Program C of the Naval Research Laboratory's (NRL) Galactic Radiation and Background (GRAB) ELINT program, also known as ''Tattletale''. The National Security Agency was given the responsibility of collecting, interpreting, and reporting the signals intercepted. The existence of the POPPY program was declassified by the NRO in September 2005, although most of the details about its capabilities and operation are still classified. The NRO revealed, though, that the POPPY satellites, like other US signals intelligence (SIGINT) systems, used the principle of signals time difference of arrival, which enables precise locating of an object. All POPPY launches ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mys Schmidta
Mys Shmidta (, lit. ''Cape Schmidt'') is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) in Iultinsky District of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located about southeast of the cape of the same name on the shore of the Chukchi Sea (a part of the Arctic Ocean), south of Wrangel Island, about from Anadyr, the administrative center of the autonomous okrug. The cape, but not the settlement, was formerly known as North Cape (or Cape North). Cape Billings is located to the west of it and Cape Vankarem is to the east. As of the 2021 Census, its population was 37; down from 705 recorded in the 2002 Census. It was founded in 1931Russian Academy of Sciences. Institute of GeographyInformation about Mys Shmidta as a part of the Soviet Union's development of its Arctic air defenses. Changes in the manner in which national defenses are constructed in recent decades have led to a decline in the settlement's importance, although it remains Chukotka's most important main northern se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Signals Intelligence
Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication (electronic intelligence—abbreviated to ELINT). As classified and sensitive information is usually encrypted, signals intelligence may necessarily involve cryptanalysis (to decipher the messages). Traffic analysis—the study of who is signaling to whom and in what quantity—is also used to integrate information, and it may complement cryptanalysis. History Origins Electronic interceptions appeared as early as 1900, during the Boer War of 1899–1902. The British Royal Navy had installed wireless sets produced by Marconi on board their ships in the late 1890s, and the British Army used some limited wireless signalling. The Boers captured some wireless sets and used them to make vital transmissions. Since the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
