A harbor, a bomb, a wall-geopolitical context and the emergence of America's national reconnaissance imaging capability

Summary form only given. The early days of the Cold War had vivid memories of World War II and a challenge to see into denied territories. From this emerged a new capability to image from space-a capability that was innovative, daring, and one of the nation's most closely guarded secrets. This capability saw the development and operation in the 1960s of Corona-a series of photoreconnaissance satellites that orbited 115 miles above the earth and imaged Cold War targets, primarily in the Soviet Union and Peoples Republic of China. Out of this evolved a robust 20th-century US imaging space reconnaissance capability that has become the foundation for this kind of space reconnaissance and remote sensing for the 21st century and beyond.