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" Dear Red, 

Mr. McCone frequently expressed concern about the need' . for a new satellite. system forgel)eral search. To be sure thaJ:· 

you are fully infonned as·to ~ctiv'ities of the NRO in this 

connection, I will gi~e you a report of background and status! 

I •• 

The original requirement for satellite reconnaissance 

systems ,.,as expressed by the USIB on July S, 1960, with the· 

statement that ~hey must be "capable· of obtaining coverage of . denied areas at object resolutions of 20 feet, 5 feet, and . ultimately 1 foot on a side." Very early, CORONA met and . bettered the first reqUirement, and during 1963 GAMBIT met and 

bettered the second. In March of 1964, the' NRO established. & .. 

development - GAMBIT 3 - to'meet the third.' 

In .July of 1964,. USIB .again addressed the requirement, . . and on.July .29 stated "That developmental work should proceed·: .. ·· urgently.' toward achieve~ent of . . . ', '. 

. . 

. ' ~ ;.'~.-: .. ;. (1) A s~gle capability forsear.ch and surveillance', ... ,., .. with cqntinuous stereoscopic ground coverage .. 

. ':, '.". equivalent to KH-4·· alld,resolution equivalent to . '. ' .. '1QI-7; and - .' 

(2) A capability .which willperm1t interpretation of· 

details on the order of one foot or less on a 

..... 

side even with & sw~th.width approxtmately half·, · that of 1Qt .. 7." .. . . 

This statement reaffirinedtherequirement for GAMBIT 3'- which 

of course is not a search 'system .' and' established for the first 

time specific requireci .character~st:l.c.: f~ a' general search.' .. , f\ 

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Durin, the period between the two statemtnt. by USII, the'· 

-Purcell Panel, convened by the .DCI in.June·of 1963, ,also . 

addressed the search requirement. Its report, dated .July 3, 

1963, stated tr •••• the ground resolution achieved under' the 

bost conditions by the H (CORONA) system,now'operating appears 

to be adequate to meet a large fraction of those intelligence . 

requirements which depend on general ccw.erage. We believe ·that . ~ . 

an attempt: to 'make a complete~y ne~ system which would provide ... ,j ~ .. equally wid,e. coverage with only a modest .imprcwement in resolution 

(S foot, say, imtead of 10 foot ground resolution), would not 

be a wise investment of .resources." • i .~ 

.. 

The current cycle of activities within the NRO related ';,.. 

to general search systems began with a competition and an award, 

of a study contract t.o Eastman Kodak. in January' 1963. Under the'· .... 'code name V~LEY, these studies examined general search systems }::. 

based on TITAN IIle, having o~jective to photograph './' 

large areas at a resolution 0 better. ~e results ~.,~, ,'. ~ 

did not g~ve assurance that a resolution a useful '; .. 

coverage would be achieved wi~hin the payload of the TITAN IIIC .• :~· : 

Tne controlling technical problems were identified. The VALLEY 

.. ' '" contract was continued to conduct broad systemS studies, and., .. ' . . ' design studies and breadboard tests of' critical components,_ ' .. ' . 

,. Both GAMBIT 3, and 'the' current Eastman efforts on general saarch.· 

.' .. _ ...... -~no~ed later, had . t:heir origins in these VALLEY studies. . . 

During the spring 9£ 1963; two competitive prop'osals for ." 

a general search systemhavtng a resolution 'in the range of 

6 feet 'to 10 feet were received and evaluated~ With the recom- ~ 

, mendation of the Purcell Panel in July J consideration of these ~. '. 

was dropped. . ...... . 

Later ·in 1963,· a proposal to ... adapt the GAMBIT camera to .' 

a gener41 searchconfiguration-wg8 recelvedand evaluated. It 

was felt that the proposed adaptation 'did Dot adequately exploit 

t:he technology. that was even then evidently becoming avaUable~ 

In November 1963, a contract was initiated with IT.EKto 

study compara~1vel)' a variety of camera concepts. Studies under 

this cont:ract' were soon directed exclusivelyt:o cen~ral·.8.arch 

systems •. TheY covered.systems baving r •• olutiOu, ~ che·'raq •. 

from 2 fee.t to lOf.et.· ".\( .:. .... ..' r$--.' :'. .: '.'./ .:, :~> .,~~: ... ; .' . " .... . .•. . . ". ..<.. .. ;~c.~ ~.;i. ~:~..:;:.:'"t .... · . CORDNAGAMBIX' ·ruLCIDK···~.··' ..... ; •.. ~ftIoI ....... .v~ . . .... :.~. ", ...... ~. ,_ I:. ;_! I;' ; .. } ':' . '. ~ ..... ~ .-,~."" ONLY ': ... .;. . ...: ... :: .... ~ ........ C~1._::..-£._.~ : ..... ___ .-! . ...:L:.. 
NRO APPROVED FOR RELEASE ' 

DECLAS$IFII!DBY: C/IART ( .... 1 : 

DECLASSIFIED ON:.1 OCT.OBER Sw.> 

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During the spring of 1964, the CIA initiated studies of 

FULCRUM. These were briefed to me and to Dr. Fubini in ..Tune. 

On July 8, Mr. Vance directed the NRO to undertake design 

studies of systems alternative to FULCRUM baving ,compar·able' 

performance objectives'; and on July29~' aS,'noted above, USIB , 

identified these performance objectives as a specific require- 'ment. . , 

In August 1964, then, in parallel to the FULCRUM activity, 

competitive design studies were undertaken against a specific 

statement of requirements. Contracts were let with Eastman Ko~ak, ITEK, and Fairc\i:i:ld, to study and reconin~nd designs for 1,';' 

a system to search 7 to 10 million square miles with stereoscop~ -: .. , photography at a resolution, on the ground track, of' three feet:~~.: -.: 

or better. Contractors'were asked to plan around a" booster 

having the capability.of the TITAN IIIX-AGENA, and were required" 

to design for the use of an alternate recovery system providing 

for up to six small recovery capsules. ' 

Recommended designs wex:e submitted· in January 1965. 

Fairchild's was unsatisfactory. Those of Eastman and ITEK, 

lo1hich drew upon the background developed by these contractors 

in their prior broad studies, were both quite attractive, ,and, 

were quite different from each other. ,Both contractors have . been continued cOl'!lpetitively since. Each is, now under c'ontract 

to design, fabricate, and test, a prototype of his recommended ", 

optical system, and to conduct tests of other critical components, 

such as film transport mechanisms. Each has ,been asked to lay' 

out a preliminary development plan,· and each 'is working with ". 

spacecraft contractors to refine,an over-all payload design. . ' 

.... In December 1964, Lockheed and Ge~eral Electric were , brought under contract competitively for spacecraft design studies 

to support the camera studies. 'Since February they have been 

working with each of the' camera contractprs.During May, they 

"will be asked to examine designs for alternative re-entry 'systems. . ," . " , 

The four contracts, with Eastman,l'lEK, Lockheed, and , Gen~ral Elec~ric~ are' all' 'funded lncrementally ona month-'t~-UlOnth 

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: COR.ONA ' GAMBl'l". FULCBDM'-' , , ' , :' 

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