UPWARD was the code name, within the

National Reconnaissance Office The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is a member of the United States Intelligence Community and an agency of the United States Department of Defense which designs, builds, launches, and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the U.S. ...

Byeman Control System The BYEMAN Control System, or simply BYEMAN (designated BYE, or B), was a security control system put in place to protect information about the National Reconnaissance Office and its operations. History The BYEMAN Control System was put in place i ...

, for assistance given to the

National Aeronautics and Space Administration The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding ...

(NASA) during Project Apollo.National Reconnaissance Office: "Memorandum by DNRO Flax to Dep SECDEF, 6 Jul 1967: National Recon Program (NRP) Issues and Pending Decisions."
/ref> The camera designed to survey the lunar surface was a modification of the GAMBIT design and utilized a 1.5 inch focal length camera for a terrain mapping apparatus. This camera system was present on both the CORONA and GAMBIT survey systems. The NRO and NASA had multiple meetings discussing the required technology for Lunar Mapping. Specifically, the NASA Apollo Applicant Working Group (dated on 6-9 Dec 1966) considered the following optical sensors: * A camera from the unmanned lunar orbiter * 12-inch focal length panoramic camera * The multi-spectral experiment reviewed earlier by the Department of Defense * 6-inch focal length mapping camera * Telescope using Questar lens (56-inch focal length) and with simplified tracking and focusing device * An imaging radar In a following meeting on 31 Jan 1967, NASA stated at the DoD-NASA Survey Applications Coordinating Committee that "there no sensors other than LM&SS for flight on AAP-1." According to the NRO/NASA agreement, lunar photography could be sanitized by eliminating camera scale factors. The project had the unclassified name of Lunar Mapping and Survey System (LM&SS) in NASA channels. The success of both

Lunar Orbiter The Lunar Orbiter program was a series of five uncrewed lunar orbiter missions launched by the United States from 1966 through 1967. Intended to help select Apollo landing sites by mapping the Moon's surface, they provided the first photographs ...

and

Surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is c ...

negated the use of the LM&SS system. There are no recorded spaceflights with these systems.

References

Reconnaissance satellites of the United States {{NASA-stub

See also

References