Corona (satellite) (nonfiction)

Diagram of KH-4B Corona reconnaisance satellite.

The Corona program was a series of American strategic reconnaissance satellites produced and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency Directorate of Science & Technology with substantial assistance from the U.S. Air Force.

The Corona satellites were used for photographic surveillance of the Soviet Union (USSR), the People's Republic of China, and other areas beginning in June 1959 and ending in May 1972.

The name of this program is sometimes seen as "CORONA", but its actual name "Corona" was a codeword, not an acronym.

The Corona program was officially classified top secret until 1992. On February 22, 1995, the photos taken by the Corona satellites, and also by two contemporary programs (Argon and KH-6 Lanyard), were declassified under an Executive Order signed by President Bill Clinton.

Further review by photo experts of the "obsolete broad-area film-return systems other than Corona" mandated by President Clinton's order led to the declassification in 2002 of the photos from the KH-7 and the KH-9 low-resolution cameras.

Fiction cross-reference

• Scrying engine

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Spacecraft (nonfiction)

External links:

• Corona (satellite @ Wikipedia