From above the Iron Curtain to around the Moon: Lunar Orbiter and the Samos spy satellite

摘要

For several decades it has been reported that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Lunar Orbiter spacecraft utilised a camera borrowed from a Department of Defense satellite. This claim appeared as early as 1971 and was even repeated in an official NASA history of the successful Moon probe. However, it was not until recently that the government agency that managed satellite reconnaissance programs, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), officially confirmed that technology from one of its early projects was incorporated into Lunar Orbiter . Despite this acknowledgement, few details of this early technology transfer from the classified, "dark" world to the unclassified "white" world have been released. For instance, other than an NRO historical brochure produced in October 2001, only two government documents have been declassified concerning this transfer.