KH-1 CORONA
Program
In 1959, WS-117L was renamed SENTRY. This effort was then divided into three sub-programs: Discoverer, MIDAS and Sentry. Soon after, the program SENTRY was renamed Samos. < 9 >.
By 1960, SENTRY encompassed: Discoverer (CORONA) for film recovery visual reconnaissance; Samos Projects 101A (E2) and 101B (E5) for, respectively, readout high magnification visual surveillance and film recovery high magnification visual reconnaissance; Samos Program 201 (E6) for film recovery high magnification visual reconnaissance; and MIDAS, an infrared sensor that was the precursor to today's Defense Support Program (DSP) program to detect missile launch and bomber movement.
Samos was terminated (Projects 101 in 1961 and Program 201 in 1962) as CORONA achieved increasing success. Yet throughout its early years, Samos was reported extensively as the key spy satellite that keeps "this Nation informed of vital military installations and build-ups behind the Iron Curtain."< 10 > So replete was the confusion that Discoverer was viewed as a mask for Samos capsule retrieval, serving to reinforce thinking that a space reconnaissance system meant large organizations with broad, discernible activities--the antithesis of the CORONA program. < 11 >
To assemble CORONA into operationally-ready satellites, a work area was leased on April 1, 1958 in Menlo Park, California. Within Lockheed, few questions arose since CORONA was compartmented: most workers engaged in a single, segmented phase of the vehicle-assembly process; as of 1963, well into regular CORONA operation, only four people in Lockheed were briefed to the entire CORONA program. CORONA was moved to Lockheed's Sunnyvale, California, plant in 1969.
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