CORONA Satellite Reconnaissance Program
National Reconnaissance Office
1995
1960–1972
The first American photo-reconnaissance satellites, whose film capsules were caught mid-air by aircraft trailing recovery nets over the Pacific. Thirteen consecutive failures preceded the first success.
Why it was classified
Even the existence of the National Reconnaissance Office was secret until 1992.
Why it matters
800,000 declassified CORONA images are now used to measure glacier retreat and lost archaeological sites — Cold War spycraft repurposed as climate science.