Center for the Study of 

National Reconnaissance Second Printing
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SAMOS TO THE MOON:

The Clandestine Transfer of Reconnaissance Technology

Between Federal Agencies

R. Cargill Hall

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. 

Conceived in the

mid-1950s, the novel

SAMOS imaging system at

that time represented cutting 

edge technology—a near

real time analog filmreadout satellite. The

Eastman Kodak Company

Photograph courtesy of EKC

SAMOS-Lunar Orbiter Camera Showing Film Track
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built the E-1 (preliminary) and

E-2 (advanced) payloads. The

E-1 featured a six-inch focal

length lens in a camera that

spooled a special twocomponent EKC Bimat

(positive) film, and SO-243 

(negative) film. The exposed

negative film, converged with

the gelatin-coated SO-111 

Bimat film, was developed in a

semi-dry chemical process, and

then was scanned by a Columbia Broadcasting System flying spot line-scanner that

consisted of a cathode-ray tube and a rotating anode having a high intensity spot of light. 

A photomultiplier converted the light passing from the scanner through the film into an

electrical signal whose strength varied with the density of the emulsion layer of the film. 

The images were then radioed to Earth as frequency-modulated analog signals, to be

assembled much in the manner of a wire photo, each image built up in swaths. 

Judging SAMOS a national asset like the U-2, and one that ought not be directed 

by a military service, in late August 1960 President Dwight D. Eisenhower removed

SAMOS from the control of the regular Air Force and assigned it to a new civilian office 

in the Department of Defense. A small contingent of Air Force officers and civilians

responsible for SAMOS now reported to the director of the new office, Under Secretary 

of the Air Force Joseph V. Charyk. But, when launched into a low-Earth orbit in late

1960 and early 1961, SAMOS E-1 imaging payloads encountered problems—and not just 

the normal ones associated with electronic component or launch vehicle malfunctions.

Like the CORONA Project that recovered film capsules, the E-1 readout payload also

was a film-limited system and did not have a long life on orbit. Second, it had no image 

storage and recall capability, and had to transmit its take to a ground station on the next 

pass. Third, the images were not encoded; for security reasons that meant the film had to 

be read-out over the continental United States. Finally, SAMOS, operating at a

 Photograph courtesy of EKC

SAMOS-Lunar Orbiter Camera with Lenses Installed
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bandwidth threshold of six

Megahertz and in view of a

ground station for only a few

minutes as it passed overhead, 

would lose part of its

reconnaissance take on each

revolution. In September

1961, therefore, Charyk,

whose office recently had

been recast as the NRO,

terminated all SAMOS film

read-out payloads. For

satellite imagery in the near

term, the NRO would

concentrate its efforts on

CORONA and the other film recovery satellite systems then under development.

Having acquired, launched, and then terminated work on a near real time imaging 

satellite, however, NRO officials at that time agreed to consign the SAMOS imaging

system to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for use in its deep 

space exploration program. The surreptitious transfer of this technology, a fact just

recently declassified, has remained unknown to many in the NRO and NASA because of 

the compartmented security measures then in place. It occurred in the following manner. 

When in the summer of 1963 NASA requested proposals for a five flight Lunar 

Orbiter imaging satellite, the Eastman Kodak Company asked for and received

permission from the NRO to join The Boeing Airplane Company and bid on the program. 

In the effort to meet NASA requirements, Eastman would modify its E-1 camera with an 

80mm focal length Schneider-Xenotar lens and an off-the-shelf 24-inch telephoto lens

procured from Pacific Optical. The two lenses would be bore sighted at the surface of the 

moon for a planned orbit of about 30 miles altitude. Light would pass through each lens 

to the film, but the simultaneous images were interspersed with other exposures, and not 

placed side by side. The camera employed the existing velocity over height sensor to

Photograph courtesy of EKC

SAMOS-Lunar Orbiter Camera Sealed in its Pressurized, 

Temperature-Controlled Container
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regulate the speed of the focal plane shutter on the 24 inch lens and the between the lens 

shutter on the 80mm lens, which compensated for image motion. The Boeing Airplane

Company, in turn, designed a solar-powered spacecraft stabilized in attitude on three axes 

that mounted other off-the-shelf hardware, and integrated it with the modified E-1 

SAMOS payload.

In the fall of 1963 a NASA Source Evaluation Board examined five proposals

received from aerospace firms for the Lunar Orbiter, including the Boeing entrant. Board 

members found the other four proposals employed liquid film developing (difficult to

contain in the hard vacuum of space), high speed film sensitive to solar radiation, and

single lens camera designs that required development and testing to prove their operation 

in space. The Boeing/Eastman Kodak proposal featured a semi-dry film developing

process, low speed film that required minimal shielding from solar radiation, and a twin 

lens camera along with much other equipment already developed and available. Although 

Photograph courtesy of The Boeing Company

Schematic of the 850-pound Boeing Spacecraft with Camera Installed
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the Boeing proposal carried the highest price tag, it clearly met or exceeded all of the

requirements for the lunar mission, and the evaluation board selected it over the other

competitors. On 20 December 1963 NASA Administrator James E. Webb announced

selection of the Boeing proposal and, after Congress accepted the decision, an incentive 

contract was signed with the firm in April 1964.

 Whether members of NASA’s source evaluation board knew of the Eastman

Kodak camera’s association with the classified National Reconnaissance Office is

uncertain, but they surely became aware of its military origins as a component of the

earlier Air Force satellite reconnaissance program. Whatever their understanding of its

clandestine background in 1963, the mix of proven technology and extraordinary efforts 

of NASA and Boeing-Eastman personnel brought the space and ground segments quickly 

on line. The space agency

launched five of the “SAMOS

Lunar Orbiters” successfully

between August 1966 and

August 1967. Now equipped

with film storage and in view

of Earth receiving stations for

over one-half hour on each

revolution as it orbited our

nearest celestial neighbor, the

first three of the lunar orbiters

completed the original task of

obtaining detailed photographs 

needed to select Apollo

landing sites. That left the last 

two film-readout near real time 

imaging satellites available to

photo-map virtually the entire moon and examine in detail various surface features.

Collectively, these images of the Earth’s natural satellite proved a selenographic bonanza 

that paved the way for Project Apollo’s manned lunar landings later in the decade. 

Photograph courtesy of The Boeing Company

A Lunar Orbiter Prepared for Environmental Testing
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NASA Photograph

First Picture of the Earth from the Moon taken by Lunar Orbiter I, 23 August 1966

NASA Photograph

Oblique View of Crater Copernicus Viewed from Lunar Orbiter II,

28 November 1966
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NASA Photograph

Oblique View of Crater Theophilus Viewed from Lunar Orbiter III, 17 February 1967

NASA Photograph

Oblique View of Crater Kepler Viewed from Lunar Orbiter III, 20 February 1967
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Instead of representing an abject failure, SAMOS secretly helped make possible

manned lunar exploration and it became the nation’s first near real time film imaging

system in space. The NRO’s electro-optical imaging system that followed in the 1970s

was, to be sure, the wave of the future; it became the first near real time digital imaging 

system. But, as near real time myths go, it ran second to an earlier NRO contribution to 

deep space exploration.

Office of the Historian

National Reconnaissance Office

October 2001

NASA Photograph

Southern Hemisphere of the Moon’s Hidden Side as Viewed from Lunar Orbiter II at an 

altitude of 900 miles, 20 November 1966