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'ES OF MEETING 66-1 

AIR F0-2,E MOL POLICY COMMITTEE 

Tuesday, February 8, 1966 

Room 4E871, Pentagon 

Attendance: 

Committee: 

Hon. Harold Brown, Secretary of the Air Force, Chairman 

Hon. Alexander H. Flax, Asst. Secretary of the Air Force 

(R&) 

Hon. Le

D

onard Marks, Jr., Asst. Secretary of the Air Force 

(FM) 

General John P. McConnell, Chief of Staff, USAF 

General B. A. Schriever, Commander, AFSC 

Lt General James Ferguson, DCS/R&D 

Secretariat: 

Colonel Richard L. Dennen, SAFSL, Asst to Executive Secretary 

Proceedings: 

1. The stated purpose of this meeting was to briefly summarize 

material to be presented to the Reconnaissance Panel of the PSAC on 

9 February 1966. General Berg introduced the meeting with a chart 

outlining the agenda for PSAC's presentation. 

Introduction Dr. Flax 

Subject Overview General Berg 

Manned and Unmanned Systems 

Sensor and Operational Considerations Dr. Tennant 

MOL System Impact Dr. Leonard 

Optical Sensor Summary Dr. Oder 

Program Summary General Berg 

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. 2. Dr. Leonard discussed the briefing for PSAC as follows: 

a. Manned/Unmanned Systems in terms of man's functions and 

the pros and cons of automating them. Those basic functions relating 

to the sensor which, as a minimum, require automation in the unmanned 

mode include alignment and focus, target acquisition and pointing, imsge 

motion compensation and film handling and recovery. -Dr. Leonard 

expressed high confidence in our ability to design automatic equipment 

which can focus, acquire targets and recover film. He also assured 

the Committee that, of the three contractors attempting to automate a 

sensor to anmnAnsate for V/h image motion, one or more was certain to 

achieve or better. He said that Aerospace Corporation agreed 

with Eastman Kodak that for across the format IMC, most of the smear 

can be reduced by the development of techniques for moving the film 

during exposure in the direction of flight motion. It now appears that 

the ground resolution obtainable with the mmAnned system is the same 

as that of the manned, provided the rinmAnned system is operated with 

a perigee of 70 N.M. The unmanned system could also perform for 41 days 

at this lower altitude with 1400 lbs of added fuel for orbital sustanance. 

b. The philosophy behind the choices made in substituting 

computer functions for those of man. Dr. Leonard stated that for PSAC 

he would show each major subsystem and how it was changed. For operation 

of the payload, timed computer commands would be employed. As a 

substitute for man's ability to monitor system performance and provide 

remedial action when required, the computer places the system in a 

holding operation and commands the telemetry recorder. For man's 

ability to perform maintenance, redundancy is designed into the unmanned 

system. Overall, for unmanned operations, 186 commands were added to 

the orbiting vehicle computer and 478 commands to the ground computer. 

c. A new baseline MOL. Dr. Leonard identified a new baseline 

MOL which includes, for manned operations, a V/h sensor, automatic 

alignment, star tracker and rate gyro package. For unmanned, it 

includes film transport, V/h sensor and recovery capsules. The baseline 

vehicle has a design weight of 26,425 pounds to which 720 pounds must 

be added for manned operation and from which 392 pounds can be subtracted 

for the unmanned operation. Thus the vehicle in the manned mode will 

weigh about 1100 pounds more than in the unmanned configuration. Reliability for the manned vehicle will approximate .9 and for the unmanned, 

.7 to .8. 

d. Conclusions. The conclusion that Dr. Leonard intended to 

convey to PSAC were that a manned/unmanned configuration is feasible; 

MOL is being designed from inception towards that objective; early 

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demonstration of the unmanned mode would involve a weight penalty of 

about 720 pounds; and that the decision as to whether a particular 

vehicle should be manned or unmanned can be made as late as 4 - 6 

months prior to launch. 

e. A summary chart revealed a comparison between manned and 

unmanned vehicles in terms of critical functions: 

Function Manned Unmanned 

Resolution High Comparable, or slightly 

lower 

Visual Observation High None 

Photography 2 or more film types 1 film type 

Data Recovery Rapid processing and Physical recovery of exposed 

readout of selected film, weekly 

data 

Discretionary 

Payload 

None Space available 

Growth Next level through Difficult to automate 

Considerations rendezvous 

3. At the conclusion of Dr. Leonard's presentation, General 

Schriever expressed concern that theoretical studies on automatic 

functions may foster a false optimism for unmanned operations. Dr. 

Brown stated that the briefing to PSAC, insofar as possible, should 

show the advantages of manned operations in terms of credible numbers 

reflecting the increased cost for development of unmanned systems and 

related to these costs, the decrease in reliability of unmanned systems. 

4. Dr. Leonard expressed optimism that PSAC would welcome the 

presentation planned for them since it reflected their interest in 

having equal consideration given to the manned and unmanned systems in 

the early design stage. Dr. Brown cautioned against false optimism 

expressing the point the PSAC's concern with NAL is basically political 

in nature, having to do with the political acceptability of man overflying 

the Sino-Soviet Bloc for the purpose of reconnaissance. Dr. Brown also 

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emphasized that man's role was essential to possible future rendezvous 

and resupply of consumable items of equipment as well as maintenance. 

General Berg stated that studies had been underway since December on 

these conditions. General Schriever noted that the need for rendezvous 

might be even greater for unmanned vehicles which require more fuel to 

sustain their orbits at lower perigee. 

5. Following the manned/unmanned summarization, Dr. Leonard stated 

that the Eastman Kodak briefing to be given to PSAC by Dr. Oder would 

cover optical, thermal alignment and dynamic considerations of the 

DORIAN optical subsystem. The thermal problem is associated with the 

flat which absorbs energy from the earth during the times the movable 

doors are open for telescope operations. The energy absorbed can 

possibly cause distortion of the flat mirror and the optical light 

path. One solution being considered is the use of slats or moving 

doors which, instead of being fully opened during telescope operation, 

are opened only to the extent required for the target under observation. 

Still another solution proposed is to heat the back plate of the flat 

mirror with about 150 watts of electricity. In any event, Dr. Leonard 

stated that Eastman's summary was intended to convince the PSAC that 

they have established satisfactory solutions to the critical problems, 

and the unmanned system would be able to do the job. 

6. General Berg next summarized the briefing by stating that the 

contractors have been notified that the Contract Definition Phase 

has been extended to April 30, 1966, and effort has been redirected 

towards definition of the manned/unmanned design. In addition, he 

stated the tentative program budget estimates would be available by 

16 April 1966 and firm figures by 15 May. The launch schedule was 

given as follows: 

Oct 1968 - Unmanned - Booster qualification 

Feb 1969 - Unmanned - Gemini qualification 

Jun 1969 - Manned - Orbiting Vehicle, less large optics 

Oct 1969 - Manned - 1st Flight, all systems including optics 

Feb 1970 - Manned or unmanned - all systems 

Jun 1970 - 

Oct 1970 - 

Feb 1971 - 

Jun 1971 - 

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General Berg stated that to achieve this --'nedule, the present program 

is being planned on the basis of a total $237 million obligating 

authority in FY67, with a decision being 1. quired in October or November 

1966 if the level must be held to the $150 million in the President's 

FY67 budget. Dr. Brown stated that we have a verbal commitment from 

DOD that the additional $87 million will 17- made available, if required. 

General Berg also stated that the above sc:dule assumes the purchase 

of 3 kits to convert the MOL from the manc.6d to the unmanned configuration 

In any of the seven manned/unmanned tests. Thus, a maximum of three 

unmanned launches is presently being planned to meet this schedule. A 

decision four months prior to launch is required to install the kit for 

unmanned operation. 

7. After the presentation, General Schriever mentioned that a 

comprehensive study on the factory-to-pad flow which impacted on the 

interface between Douglas, General Electric and Eastman Kodak had been 

briefed at the MOL Program Review on 5 February 1966. Dr. Brown requested 

that he be kept informed of all agreements satisfactorily concluded 

with respect to the interfaces among these contractors. General Schriever 

said that he thought Dr. Flax planned to review this subject at AFSSD 

on 18 February 1966. 

ACTION: Advise Dr. Brown of any interface agreements concluded 

between Douglas, General Electric and Eastman Kodak subsequent to the 

18 February 1966 review by Dr. Flax and General Schriever. 

The meeting adjourned at 1530 hours. 

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APPENDIX 

MOL POLICY COMMITTEE 

8 February 1966 

Other Attendees: 

B/General R. Berg, Deputy Director, MOL Program 

Dr. Peter Leonard, Aerospace Corporation 

Dr. Michael I. Yarymovych, MOL Program Office 

Colonel Henry C. Howard, Office of Space Systems 

Major Donald Floyd, MOL Program Office 

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