IMINT Notes "They who have put out the people's eyes, reproach them of their blindness." John Milton, 1642.

NIMA to Declassify KH-7 and KH-9 Imagery

NIMA soon will selectively declassify KH-7 and KH-9 imagery. NIMA's Historical Imagery Declassification Conference to be held on September 20th, 2002 at the University of Maryland, will host a series of speakers on the topic. Of the estimated 600,000 images from the KH-7 and KH-9 satellites, only 50,000 frames or less than twenty percent of the total will be released. The KH-7 had resolution of a half meter and operated from 1963 to 1967. The KH-9 had a resolution of .60 meter and operated from 1971 to 1984. NIMA is only releasing the lower resolution mapping camera imagery from the KH-9 which flew on five missions and was between 2.5 and 5 meter resolution. Presumable no imagery will be available of Israel, or NATO allies.

While this release falls short of hopes by researchers and historians, that it happend at all after the events of September 11th, is remarkable. The imagery along with mission ephemeris data, will be stored at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, and will also be available online from the US Geological Surveys web site. Programs sponsors have not said when the imagery will be available to researchers.