NRO APPROVED FOR 

RELEASE 1 JULY 2015 

BYE-40280.65 

AGREEMENT CONCERNING MOL SYSTEM PROGRA 

OFFICE AND PROGRAM MANAGEMENT 

This agreement establishes the managerial approach and 

certain procedures to be followed by the Director, MOL and the 

Director, SAFSP and their respective organizations in order to 

assure full, complete and efficient coordination and integration of 

their separate aspects of the MOL program, so that it may be 

managed and conducted effectively as a single program. 

The agreed method for achieving these objectives is to 

establish an arrangement whereby the two management channels 

which are involved in the program are joined in a single integrated 

MOL SPO on the West Coast. To do this in an effective and practical 

manner, it is necessary to delegate certain responsibilities and 

authorize certain managerial prerogatives to the Deputy Director, MOL, 

so that the Deputy Director, MOL and the Director, SAFSP can carry 

out their assigned MOL duties and manage the activities of their respective 

parts of the integrated MOL SPO on an essentially common basis of responsibility, authority, and managerial latitude. In addition, it is 

desirable that the MOL program management structure follow certain 

procedures which will assist in the establishment and maintenance of 

effective management and essential program discipline, and assure 

that all steps taken toward study and development of additional sensitive 

MOL payloads are compatible with this approach and applicable constraints. 

Accordingly, unless and except as specifically directed otherwise 

by higher authority, all actions taken by the Director, MOL and the 

Director, SAFSP and their respective organizations shall conform to 

the attached approach and procedures. 

JOHN L. MARTIN, JR B. A. SCHRIEVER 

Brigadier General, USAF General, USAF 

Director, SAFSP Director, MOL 

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1. MOL program management responsibilities will be divided between 

the Washington area and the West Coast on the basis that the Washington 

activities will be confined to matters which unavoidably must be handled 

in Washington and the remainder will be delegated to the West Coast. 

In this regard, the office of the Deputy Director, MOL will be the entire 

MOL SPO in every sense of the term for all MOL responsibilities assigned 

to the Director, MOL. 

Z. Interface between the Deputy Director, MOL and the Director, SAFSP 

will be provided by integral location of the SAFSP MOL reconnaissance 

payload office (within appropriate security provisions) with the offices 

of the Deputy Director, MOL, such that he and all appropriate members 

of his office have full, convenient and continuous access to these personnel 

and all information concerning their work, its status and projected plans, 

and the SAFSP personnel receive directly all vehicle interface and overall 

systems integration information, with the net practical effect of establishing a single, integrated, complete MOL System Program Office. 

3. The Director, MOL will follow the overall management approach of 

conducting all individual and joint reviews of the MOL program on the 

West Coast, except for unavoidable Washington reviews such as those 

required by PSAC, etc. 

4. Subject to his individual reviews, and joint reviews with the Director, 

NRO, as outlined above, the Director MOL will delegate the entire 

responsibility for overall MOL system integration to the Deputy Director, 

MOL, and all steps necessary to insure a fully coordinated MOL program 

will be determined and implemented by the Deputy Director, MOL and 

the Director, SAFSP, in accordance with their respective MOL responsibilities. 

5. Both the Director, SAFSP and the Deputy Director, MOL will be 

allowed the same degree of managerial latitude for their respective MOL 

responsibilities as is established practice for the Director, SAFSP for 

his other responsibilities, with full authority to determine and use, without.. 

specific Washington approval, all contractual instruments and instructions, 

including the work statements, technical directives, etc. , that they consider necessary or appropriate to carry out broad program guidance received from Washington. (Washington approval of program documents 

will be confined to non-contractual documents such as development plans. ) 
NRO APPROVED FOR 

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6. Within their assigned responsibilities and delegated authorities, the 

Deputy Director, MOL and the Director, SAFSP shall be free to 

establish, and change, any working interface agreements between them 

and their offices without requiring any approval or other action of higher 

echelons unless and until they should be unable to reach agreement. 

7. Authority to initiate or direct, and responsibility for, all contracts 

concerning the MOL program will be delegated exclusively to and 

exercised exclusively by either the Deputy Director, MOL, or the 

Director, SAFSP, whether contracted for directly by them or assigned 

or directed by them to some other contracting agency. 

8. The Director, SAFSP and the Deputy Director, MOL, will determine 

by mutual agreement which MOL program contracts will be "black" 

in accordance with applicable established NRO criteria, and will refer 

such determination to the Director, MOL and the Director, NRO in any 

case on which they should be unable to agree. 

9. The Director, SAFSP will be responsible for all "black" contracts 

associated with the MOL program, for the developments and work conducted under such contracts. and for determining and iamning all work 

statements, technical direction, and all other instructions to such contractors.' In carrying out this responsibility, he will coordinate work 

statements and technical direction with the Deputy Director, MOL, and 

comply with the overall systems integration and vehicle interface 

specifications provided to him by the Deputy Director, MOL. 

10. The Director, MOL will arrange for his Washington office (and SAFSL) 

to use appropriate SAFSS personnel to provide all necessary information 

and staff assistance concerning MOL responsibilities assigned to the 

Director, SAFSP, rather than using a duplicate or counterpart approach. 

These SAFSS personnel will maintain appropriate information concerning 

the status of MOL responsibilities assigned to SAFSP, brief and discuss 

this with any appropriate persons in the Washington area, as necessary, 

and, through the Director, NRO, arrange for more detailed discussions 

and/or briefings by SAFSP and/or SAFSP Aerospace and contractor 

personnel when necessary. In addition, they will provide all of the 

staff work incidental to directives and instructions to the Director, SAFSP. 

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11. All directives and instructions to the Director, SAFSP and the 

Deputy Director, MOL will be handled exclusively in their respective 

management channels, i. e. , from the Director, MOL to the Deputy 

Director, MOL, and from the Director, NRO to the Director, SAFSP. 

12. Except for identification of "black" funds, by totals, with the sole 

explanation "details subject to special access, " all MOL program 

documentation and material forwarded by or from the Deputy Director, 

MOL to any higher echelon will be "white" and will contain no reference 

to MOL work for which SAFSP is responsible. All documentation containing Byeman controlled information will be prepared by appropriately 

cleared personnel and forwarded by SAFSP through established practedlives 

and channels. 

13. All aspects of study, development, and other activities which would 

reveal or imply that the MOL mission includes the collecting, or the 

actual capability of collecting, information of practical intelligence 

value will be handled under the covert project DORIAN and/or such 

other individual covert project names as may be designated by the 

Director, NRO. 

14. Washington and West Coast elements of the MOL management 

structure will submit all requests for special clearances associated 

with the MOL program to the NRO, through SAFSS for all Washington 

area personnel and SAFSP for all others. Need-to-know will be 

validated, clearability determined, and all clearances by the NRO, 

in the same manner and on the same basis as for similar NRO 

effort. 

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15. In accordance with their respective responsibilities, and in response 

to instructions/requests through their 'respective management channels, 

all meetings with, and all visits to, and all Government requested or 

authorized travel of all MOL-associated contractors will be arranged 

and authorized exclusively by the Deputy Director, MOL, or the 

Director, SAFSP. 

16. In accordance with their respective responsibilities, and in response 

to instructions/requests through their respective management channels, 

all Government requested or authorized travel of, and all participation in 

meetings, discussions and presentations by Aerospace Corporation 

personnel concerning any aspect of the MOL.program will be arranged 

and authorized exclusively by the Deputy Director, MOL, or the 

Director, SAFSP. 

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SAFSP-MOL SPO INTERFACE AGREEMENT NO, 1. 

1. So that all program direction and guidance issued by the two 

management channels involved in the Manned Orbiting Laboratory 

(MOL) program may be implemented in a fully coordinated and 

consistent manner, there is established in El Segundo, California 

a single, integrated MOL System Program Office. 

2. In the formulation of this integrated MOL SPO, the Director, 

SAFSP will establish a MOL Sensor Payload (Mace which is 

located with the office of the Deputy Director,_ 

3. In addition to, and consistent with his responsibility for overall top level systems integration and general systems engineering 

and technical direction, it is agreed that the over-all supervision 

and coordination of the activities of the integrated MOL SPO is 

the responsibility of the Deputy Director, MOL. 

4. In the areas of DORIAN payload development, production, 

acquisition and test, and in the covert reconnaissance mission 

application, certain tasks are the responsibility of the Director, 

SAFSP. These tasks will be carried out in coordination with the 

Deputy Director, MOL. 

a. Reconnaissance Sensor Payload Office: The Director, 

SAFSP will establish this office and will provide sufficient manpower spaces and qualified manning to conduct assigned tasks. 

Although such assigned tasks initially are for the development, 

acquisition and test of a high resolution photographic sensor, and 

development of those elements necessary to use the MOL sensors 

in unmanned systems, other DORIAN reconnaissance sensor 

development tasks may be assigned in the future. The SAFSP 

Deputy Director heading this office will be responsible to the 

Director, SAFSP. However, he will be responsive to the Deputy 

Director, MOL for over-all program direction, schedule requirements, systems integration and interface specifications, and 

general coordination and direction of his activities within the 

integrated MOL SPO. A letter of evaluation concerning the 

incumbent will be prepared by the Deputy Director, MOL, and 

will be forwarded to the Director, SAFSP to assist the Director, 

SAFSP in the preparation of the OER for the incumbent. This 

evaluation must be Byeman controlled. 

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BYE-40281 -65 NRO APPROVED FOR 

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b. Advanced Technology and Research: The Director, 

SAFSP will conduct systems and technical studies of improved 

reconnaissance sensors and research on improvements in 

reconnaissance sensor technology applicable to MOL. Such 

activities will be conducted by the pertinent office within SAFSP. 

These activities may have a direct impact on the development of 

the MOL system. Therefore, they will be done in coordination 

with the Deputy Director, MOL, who has established the necessary 

interface office, and whose responsibility it will be to work closely 

and in coordination with the SAFSP office. 

c. Mission Planning: It is the assigned responsibility of 

the Deputy Director, MOL for over-all mission operations, 

including the planning for and exercise of on-orbit control of the 

vehicle and reconnaissance payload in response to intelligence 

collection tasks established by the DNRO or his designee. A 

specific MOL office has been established for the purpose of such 

planning. Since applicable assets in the form of experienced 

personnel, equipment and programs are in existence within the 

SAFSP office having similar responsibilities for other programs, 

a close interface has been established. The SAFSP office will 

furnish complete technical support to aid in the determination 

and development of necessary mission planning and mission 

support tools such as computer support, communications, liaison 

with the intelligence requirements community, target acquisition 

and study programs, and input programs to command/control 

software. This SAFSP support responsibility will be in depth 

and will continue until such time as counterpart MOL capabilities 

are determined to be adequate by the Deputy Director, MOL. 

d. "Black" Contracting: The Director, SAFSP will be 

responsible for all "black" contracts associated with the MOL 

program, and for determining and issuing all technical direction 

and all other instructions to such contractors. The preparation 

of all documentation; i.e., RFP's, work statements, contract 

change notices, etc., and associated technical direction to 

contractors, will be the responsibility of the SAFSP MOL 

payload office located within the MOL SPO. These will be 

coordinated with the Deputy Director, MOL and will comply 

with the over-all system integration direction and vehicle interface specifications provided by the Deputy Director, MOL. 
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e. "Black" Funding: Authority to obligate MOL funds 

will be issued by the NRO Comptroller direct to SAFSP in 

response to SAFSP budget estimates and financial plans. 

Accounting for these Obligating Authorities and reporting on 

their status to the NRO Comptroller will be the responsibility 

of the Director, SAFSP who will also keep the Deputy Director, 

MOL advised. 

f. Program Direction Documentation: Since program 

direction will flow to the MOL SPO through two channels 

((1) from the Director, MOL to the Deputy Director, MOL for 

the bulk of MOL activities, and (2) from DNRO to the Director, 

SAFSP for the reconnaissance sensors), it will be necessary 

to insure that certain program direction documents are maintained on file by both the Deputy Director, MOL and the Director, 

SAFSP. Any such documentation affecting the MOL-SAFSP 

interface will be maintained in the following offices: (1) For 

the Deputy Director, MOL in the MOL SPO, specifically in the 

Program Control Office. (2) For the Director, SAFSP in the 

Deputy Directorate for Programming and Procurement, and 

in the SAFSP MOL payload office located in the MOL SPO. 

g. Security: Normal security for the MOL program 

will be conducted under AFR 205-23. Special covert security 

procedures will be established within the Byeman Control System 

(and its industrial equivalent) under the covert project DORIAN 

and/or such other individual covert project names as may be 

designated hereafter by the DNRO. The Deputy Director, MOL 

will establish an office having the responsibility for the handling 

of covert documentation within the ground rules called out by 

the BCO, SAFSP. Within the MOL SPO, the SAFSP MOL payload 

office will maintain a secure file of all DORIAN information where 

the Deputy Director, MOL and appropriate members of his staff 

will have full, convenient and continuous access. 

5. The Director, SAFSP and the Deputy Director, MOL agree to 

the working arrangements described in this document. Further, 

it is agreed to periodically review these arrangements for the 

purpose of enhancing MOL/SAFSP interface as conditions warrant. 

JOHN L. MARTIN, JR. RUSSELL A. BERG 

Brigadier General, USAF Brigadier General, USAF 

Director, SAFSP Deputy Director, MOL