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v .. ;, H Jl;;'tlV l U\bDr 'ARTMENT OF' THE AIR FORC{ 

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF 

UNITED STATES AIR FORCE 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 2.0330 

susJECT, Release of Information on Air Force Satellite Control Facility (AFSC/ CC 

Ltr, 18 Apr 1974) 

To, AFSC/ CC (~n Phillips) 

· 1. (U) I concur with your recommendation to tell the story of the Air 

Force Satellite Control Facility (AFSCF) in greater depth. The items· 

listed in Paragraph 3 of your letter appear to be suitable for discussion 

at an unclassified level. 

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I. 

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· 2. (U) One approach that could be used would be to describe AF'SCF support 

of a relatively unclassified space program ... The System Program Office 

effort could be discussed at SAivIBO and then the AFSCF support to that 

program could be addressed at the AFSCF. This would permit a general 

briefing of the AFSCF mission, operation, resm .. irces, etc. and still allow 

a detailed examiJ?.ation of. how the AFSCF suppo:r:ts a particular program. I 

The "program approach" to the AFSCF could include a tour of that program's f 

control area in the Satellite Test Center pending SAF/OI approval. I .',[ 

believe that the briefings and tour can be accom1:;1ished at an unclassilied . 

level. The Defense Satellite Communications System II or Space Test 

Program might be good candidates. . 

! , 3. (C) Regarding the appropriateness of discussing recovery operations 

of the 6594th Test Group at Hickam AFB, I would like to reserve the option 

to treat this as classified until the proposed set ,of replies to specific 

questions referred to in your letter have been coordinated with us to insure 

that we agree on the release of any specific infrnr:·mation. 

\ 

4. (U). This approach has b~en approved by Secr-etary McLucas !!!nd 1.~!. I 

O Pl l!i.lilM s i;Pi. • • 

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WASHINGTON, D.C. 

April 24, 1974 

MEMORANDUM.FOR MR. PLUMMER 

SUBJECT: Satellite Test Center Publicity 

General Phillips' letter to General Brown (TAB A) regarding subjects about the AFSCF deemed suitable for discussion with the Aviation Week staff was passed to AF/RDS 

for action. Apparently General Brown is favorably inclined 

towards the idea. This inertia makes it more difficult for 

AF/RDS to give a negative recommendation; however, we do 

havean entry since General Brown indicated a necessity for 

SAFSS and SAFOI involvement in this problem. In addition, 

we understand that the HQS AFSC briefing on April 22 went 

well in the sense that SAMSO and AFSCF activities were not 

discussed to any extent to cause us concern and also there 

were no commitments made by HQS AFSC regarding subjects/ 

programs to be discussed when the Aviation Week staff visits 

SAMSO. Therefore, the issue at hand is to determine whether 

any change in policy regarding release of information on 

AFSCF is warranted and what the impact of any policy changes 

would be on NRO operations and security. 

Last year we staffed a similar episode when Roy Neal of 

NBC wanted to interview General Schultz in the context of 

Air Force space activities. _The idea was for Mr. Neal to 

use the material as background during-the SKYLAB mission 

activities. Among the subjects SAMSO recommended for coverage 

with Mr. Neal were a visit to the STC including appropriate 

interviews regarding the STC mission/activities including 

filming of the mission consoles and also live filming or releasing existing footage of the 6594th Test Group re-entry 

capsule recovery activities. Working through SAFOI we 

channeled the approval to allowing emphasis on the weather 

satellite, navigation satellite, Space T~st Program, communication satellite, Titan III and ~inutemc!.n Prog'f~ms.~._ One 

portion of SAFOI reasoning was that other individuals had 

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requested tours of the STC prior to Mr. Neal's request. If 

the STC.were opened up, it shouid be for a press open house 

for everyone not just for one person (or organization like 

Aviation Week). Dr. McLucas noted this and mentioned that 

he might be in favor of an STC open house if it were feasible. 

The issue was left there and not followed up. As a result, 

Mr. Neal's film crew photographed the STC from outside the 

gate. The film crew was allowed to visit and photograph the 

weather satellite's transportable tactical van at McClellan 

AFB. Also General Schultz was interviewed without incident. 

On another occasion, SAMSO requested clearance on a 

classified film about the SCF for showing at the AIAA Symposium 

in Washington. The film was poorly suited for the occasion 

and in addition showed scenes of satellite payload recovery 

operations. We had the film edited to delete those scenes 

and posed no objection to the edited film's release. 

At present there is little information which has been 

released on the SCF. A generalized mission.statement was 

released in February 1970 (TABB). Since then there has 

been nothing released regarding the SCF or STC mission. 

With regard to the current Aviation Week Staff situation, 

we have serious reservations over releasing.any additional information about or allowing a tour of the STC and certainly 

no information should be released on the recovery operations. 

There appears to be no area in which the Air Force stands 

to gain by discussing SCF activities. The SCF is an organization dedicated to supporting on-going space programs. Without 

SCF support, the space programs cannot function operationally. 

On the other hand, if the SCF activities are discussed and the 

STC is toured, the Aviation Week staff members, who are extremely 

well informed on space activities, will undoubtedly skip over 

the IDCSPr, DSCS, Vela, etc. programs on which they already have 

information. ·rnstead, with the subject-of SCF mission support 

being opened, they may well ask those unanswerable questions· 

about support to reconnaissance satellites (even about SCF 

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support to the NRO). SAMSO spokesmen will be placed in the 

extremely difficult position of confirming the information 

(which they cannot do because of security), or denying 

(which could be untrue) or giving no comment (which is de facto 

admission). 

In conclusion, we believe that changing standing policy 

to allow SAMSO to discuss SCF activities to the extent described in the HQS AFSC letter to CSAF would gain no benefit 

for the Air Force and would instead create a situation for 

further exposure of NRO operations to the detriment of our 

security . 

. RecommeIJ.d that you maintain the position that during 

the briefings to '.Aviation Week, AFSC and SAMSO spokesmen 

not release information on the SCF other than what has been 

already approved for release and that there be no tour of 

the STC. 

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~&f 

Captain, USAF 

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OFFICE OF THE UNDER SECRETARY 

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/MEMORANDUM FOR AFSC/CC (GENERAL PHILLIPS) / 

SUBJECT:. Release of Information on AFSCF } 

With regatd to General Brown's response to you on the 

AFSCF publici~y, I expect that neither AFSC Headquarters nor 

SAMSO will take any action which will impinge upon the operations of the satellite reconnais~ance program. General 

Schultz and ~is people should tak~·partic~lar care to avoid 

situations wtth the Aviation Weekipeople which would provoke f ----- ---. • sensitive qμestions on either the Air Forc·e or NRO programs. 

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AFSC has requested authority to discuss substantial information about the AFSCF operation with Aviation Week. 

The two major areas of discussion would be the SCF satellite 

control operation and the 6594th Recovery Group operation. 

- We requested CIA guidance on this matter at Mr. Plurrnner 1 s 

direction. 

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CIA believes that satellite reconnaissance activities 

should not be subjected to the degree of public exposure 

that is being proposed and that it would be precipitous 

at this time to open up activities of the STC and the 

6594th to any further public exposure. 

The Air Staff believes that most of the STC operations could 

be safely discussed if a program such as the Space Test 

Program.is used as an example. The Air Staff reserves 

judgment on the 6594th. 

General Bradburn is against declassifying and disseminating 

information about the SCF. He believes that any data which 

would serve to reveal operation details about the tracking 

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network and recovery operations are inappropriate since 

these operations are our only means of retrieving photographic intelligence derived by satellite. 

Th~ NRO Staff believes that an ultra-conservative approach 

should be followed in that the general SCF. operations could 

be discussed using the Space Test Program and that the 

Air Force should be highly aware of the probiems associated 

with leading reporters into areas which' cannot be fully 

· developed in terms of questions and answers. We also 

believe that there is risk of over-zealous spokesmen going 

beyond proper limits of discussion. We strongly suggest 

that a parallel BYEMAN letter be signed by General Brown 

which urges a high degree of .responsibility on the part 

of General Schultz and his people for the protection of 

Air Force and NRO security. 

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