Samos to the Moon: the Clandestine Transfer of Reconnaissance Technology between Government Agencies.

摘要

Among those who share a passing interest in the history of astronautics, two popular myths remain in vogue. The first contends that the U.S. Air Force, which began American work on reconnaissance satellites with the SAMOS Project, failed in the late 1950s in its efforts to create a near real time film imaging system. Second, and entirely dependent on the first axiom, the electro-optical imaging system developed later by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) represents the first application of near real time satellite imaging. The actual story, as you might suppose at this point, is rather different.