Secret Satellite (1 of 28)

The CORONA program pioneered the whole area of, not only satellite reconnaissance really, but the useful application of space.
Any failure that occurred in space, other than the Challenger blowup, we did first.
When I looked at what, what we did on CORONA, it looks pretty good.
But ah, when you put it out in today's light, it looks pretty, pretty amateur.
But the whole country was amateurish.
Five, four, three, two, one, zero.
Lift off This is the American space program that you know.
Mercury, Gemini, Apollo.
The familiar names of the pioneering efforts that eventually put men on the moon.

But there was another space program you were not told about.
It was called CORONA and it was the world's first spy satellite.
From 1960 to 1972, CORONA took pictures that laid bare the secrets of the communist world.
Born in the era of vacuum tubes and computer punch cards, CORONA was a landmark accomplishment in engineering and espionage.
Its success did not come easily, and it would not have come at all but for the stubborn conviction of the men who built the satellite.