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THE NRO STAFF April 1, 1968 

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Dear General Smart: 

I have just received a copy of the minutes of a March 19, 1968 

meeting of the 303 Committee at which the question of APOLLO 6 

photography was discussed. 

The 303 Committee has, in connection with this issue, approved 

the thrust of a paper (BYE 12849-68) prepared by Dr. Flax for Mr. 

Nitze, which Mr. Nitze forwarded to the 303 Committee principals 

for their consideration on March 15. I have attached a copy of the 

paper for your information. 

You will note three recommendations outlined on page 4 of the 

paper. The first has already been accomplished by the DOD/NASA 

Survey Applications Coordinating Committee. The second has been 

discussed by the 303 Committee which has directed that "all photography, either domestic or foreign, should be screened by the 

COMIREX mechanism prior to public release. lIOn the third recommendation, the 303 Committee expressed the following judgment: 

''It was recognized that the long-standing point of sensitivity 

in satellite photography is the possible accusation of violation 

of sovereignty with the USG being maneuvered into a position 

where the question of overflight permission is raised. A careful judgment in the release of material will help to sidestep 

this controversy. II 

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I trust this information will be of some help. 

LL A. BERG 

Brigadier General. USAF 

Director 

Attachment 

General Jacob Smart 

Asst Administrator for DOD and 

Interagency Affairs 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration 

Washington, D. C. 20546 

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OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR March 12, 1968 

MEMORANDUM FOR THE DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE 

SUBJECT: APOLLO 6 Flight Photography 

I understand t~at NASA will shortly bring to the 303 Committee a 

request for approval of satellite photography from APOLLO 6 scheduled I. 

for March 26, 1968. The NASA description of the planned operation is 

. included at Tab A. 

The subject of NASA satellite photography was considered in depth 

by the NSAM 156 Ad Hoc Committee in the summer of 1966 (the final 

report dated July 11, 1966 is attached at Tab B). There are numerous 

technical and political factors considered in this report. However, the 

conclusions of most direct relevance to the current NASA request are: 

1. Current NASA photographic activities should have an optical '1 

/-., ground resolution no better than about 60 feet from low Earth orbit and 

2. Public discussion of future possibilities (for the Earth Resources 

or Earth Sensing Program of NASA) should be limited to 10 or 15 feet for 

the next five years. 

The aim of these restrictions was to avert disclosure of the quality 

of American satellite optical technology as it is currently utilized in the 

NRP and also to minimize certain political problems which could arise 

if high resolution photography of too much value in military or economic 

intelligence were suddenly shown for foreign areas. Our national position, of course, is that such photography is perfectly legal, but it has :', 

also been our practice not to put this principle to a sudden and dramatic 

test disclosing the ultimate implications of that position. 

GA::VIBIT 

CORONA 

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As far as we are aware, the NASA plans for APOLLO 6 photography take cognizance of the above constraints. However, the actual 

intelligence value of photography from space depends upon detailed 

technical and operational considerations, including not only the gross 

characteristics of the camera (e. g. focal length and f number) but 

also the scale of the photography, the satellite and orbit characteristics (i. e. accuracy of stabilization, orbital height, etc.), the film, 

and the operational conditions under which photographs are to be taken 

(e. g. time of day, time of year, latitude and longitude of photographic 

targets). We have had neither the detailed data nor the time to conduct an adequate analysis of the APOLLO 6 photographic plans. There-

. fore it is not possible for us to state with certainty what kinds of military, political or economic intelligence information may be derived 

from the APOLLO 6 photography. ,NASA has not introduced information 

concerning their plans for this camera experiment in the two-I)"0:67NAsA _~I~n2_~~~~j3·-dea1in~i th thisarea-:-the-S-;rvey A pplica tions 

Coordinating Committee and the Manned Space Flight Policy Committee. 

Review by these bodies is essential if we are to have a valid understanding of all possible implications of this planned operation. 

In order to give a general indication of the kinds of information 

which might be derived from this photography which has a nominal resolution of 100 feet, we have provided, at Tab C, a set of photographs 

from the KH-4B (CORONA), the KH-7 (original GAMBIT) and KH-8 

(current GAMBIT). These materials are taken from the stellar index . I 

cameras of 1 1/2" focal length on the KH-7 and 3" focal length on the 

KH-4B and KH-8 and range between 76 and 100 foot resolution. It can 

be. seen that considerable intelligence information of a gross nature is 

contained on the 20X enlargements even though the contact print seems 

to contain little information. In particular, the type and location of air 

fields are easily discernible from such photography. The NASA plan is 

to acquire stereoscopic photographs which will provide considerably 

more information than can be discerned from these single photographs. 

The NASA proposal is to take photographs on only one orbit, which 

overflies the United States, Africa and Australia, thereby avoiding 

photography of many sensitive areas such as the Middle East, the IndianPakistan border areas and the Soviet Union. However, since subsequent 

orbits of the same mission will, in fact, overfly sensitive areas, release 

of this photography may simply give an indication (or an excuse for claim-

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ing) that we withheld photographs taken on subsequent orbits. 

The open release of photography of this quality taken from space 

is not being pr oposed for the first time. Previously hand-held cameras 

were used by the GEMINI astronauts. The high-quality photographs so 

taken in the GEMINI Program were treated as classified and developed 

in classified facilities, reviewed at N:?1C by NRO and other members of 

the intelligence community prior to release. Among the photographs 

withheld were those illustrating the capability to show airfields (one 

withheld photograph of Bergstrom Air Force Base approximated 20-30 

foot resolution, at which it was possible to identify and count the B-52s 

on the base). This same procedure should be followed in the present 

case. It should be noted in this connection that the procedure causes 

some unhappiness among the NASA personnel at the working level, many 

of whom believe that everything they do should be immediately publicized 

in the newspapers. 7 

? • 

'8, 

The ostensib~urpose of the NASA photographic experiment in 

APoLLo-sIs to-;:ecord engineering data on spacecraft orientation. (The 

camera has previously been flown in APOLLO 5 for this purpose). However, it must be noted that this is neither the most convenient nor costeffective method of obtaining such data; a star camera would do much 

better and is the method used in the NRP satellites. NASA. however, 

also states that the engineering film data will Ilbe used by the Earth 

Resources Survey Program participants to provide an insight int o the 

value of this type of photography for each of their disciplines, II and tha t 

lilt is expected that the more interesting photographs will have a significant public information value II. 

10. 

The statement1made by NASA that the Mercury and GEMINI photography from orbit Ilresulted in no unfavorable reactions II is generally true. 

The Communist Chinese did react unfavorably with a public statement 

/1 t 

that the flights were obviously for the purpose of military reconnaissance. 

However, this theme was not taken up by the other countries and overall 

there was no adverse reaction. However, as noted above, . the screening 

processes withheld from public re lease those photographs which could 12.. I 

hav e created more reaction. 

I recommend the following position on the proposed APOLLO 6 

satellite photography: 

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1. A detailed review of the technical and operational factors 

should be carried out by the Survey Applications Coordinating Committee to identify more positively the characteristics of the photographic equipment and the character of the photography which is to 

be expected. (Not necessarily an item for injection into the 303 

Committee proceedings. ) 

2. A screening procedure for photography resulting from this 

flight similar to the one used for the high-quality GEMINI photography should be established. 

3. The 303 Committee should consider the political sensitivity 

of the mission overall at this time (keeping in mind that the implication may exist or be created that photography was taken on orbits 

other than those on which photography is actually taken or released). 

The particular foreign countries planned to be overflown are Mauritania, 

Mali, Upper Volta, Ghana, Togo, Dahomey, Gabon, Congo, Zambia, 

Mozambique, Malagasy, Malawi and Mexico. The issue which we particularly want to avoid is any implication that the permission of the 

countries overflown is required for such photography and therefore 

great care must be taken about announcements of the test Rlan prior to 

the flight;--since a confrontatIon:>r at least a diie~ma wiU-have'-to be 

faced if one of the countries to be overflown objects. 

If the overall political sensitivity at this time is judged to be 

l ow both fo r the countries being overflown and in the world at large, 

there appears t o be no reason why this photography should not be 

allowed to proceed since it is apparently in accordance with the limitations imposed by the NSAM 156 Ad Hoc Committee, with a provision 

for review and screening of photography prior to release. However, 

r 

/ !), 

a technical and operational review of the camera equipment and the 

experimental plan should be conducted by the Survey Applications 

Coordinating Committee prior to the flight; this is in accordance with 

existing arrangements between DOD and NASA which do not seem to 11 I 

have been followed in this case. I will proceed to arrange such a 

review. 

Alexander H. Flax 

GAMBIT 

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