Genesis Of The USAF’s First Satellite Programme
£5.00
J. S. Coolbaugh. (1998), JBIS, 51, pp.283-300
Refcode: 1998.51.283
Abstract:
In February of 1995 the veil of secrecy was lifted from the CORONA reconnaissance satellite programme. This action freed the people who had been involved in the development of the United States Air Force satellite programme over forty years before to tell the story of the development of the USAF’s first satellite. As is to be expected, all of the higher-ranking people involved with the programme gave their accounts of the decision – making process but little of any consequence was said about the “nitty gritty” of actually putting together a programme which could boost the CORONA pay load into orbit. This account is about the dedicated people at working level who made it possible to attempt a launch of the first of the CORONA series of satellites on 21 January 1959 , just a little over 15 months after the Russians had launched Sputnik. This was accomplished with a total funds authorisation of only $4.5 million to cover the work done from January 1954 to July 1957, when nine times that amount-$40.6 million-had been requested to cover the work of this period! Ingenuity and hard work made up for this shortfall of funds.
