CORONA Historical De-classified Products

Abstract

The United States space programme included not only the open scientific program, but also classified satellites which were operated by the Air Force and the Central Intelligence Agencies, and these induced the top-secret CORONA program [1]. CORONA operated from August 1960 to May 1972 and acquired photographic images covering nearly two billion square kilometres over a 12-year period [2]. The last flight of the secret CORONA missions took place on 24 May 1972 [3], but the images were not released and offered for public use until February 1995 [1]. This declassification of major U.S. satellite reconnaissance programs offered a significant source of imagery to the civil community such as environmental researchers, archaeologists, historians, and other users, with over 800,000 images having been taken from space for many parts of the Earth [2].