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{
    "localId": "12009238",
    "label": "Report, Project Corona - Security in 1960",
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{
    "id": "12009238",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/12009238",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Report, Project Corona - Security in 1960",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/12009238",
    "collections": [
        "White House Office, Office of the Staff Secretary: Records of Paul T. Carroll, Andrew J. Goodpaster, L. Arthur Minnich, and Christopher H. Russell",
        "Alphabetical Subject Files"
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    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 17,
            "logicalDate": "1959-03-17",
            "month": 3,
            "year": 1959
        }
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{
    "seq": 2,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/eisenhower/dde-whoss/186628/186628_0015_02.jpg",
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    "ocrText": "ICD tes CERRET\nThe\n- 2 -\nacts, and second, that they should nevertheless be activities appropriate to\nthe Military establishment and of importance sufficient to justify an operation\non a substantial scale. It should be noted that ARPA has announced programs\ninvolving the use of satellites for early warning and communications and\ninvolving the development of a manned recoverable space vehicle, thus con-\nfirming that the Defense establishment is actively pursuing all the long (-range -\nobjectives which the DISCOVERY series allegedly serves.\n3. The above-outlined official cover story has been embroidered and\namplified in one important respect in the technical press. It was quickly\nrecognized when the DISCOVERY series was announced that it would include\ncertain operations originally contemplated as part of the SENTRY project.\nAccordingly, it was widely speculated that the DISCOVERY series is at least\nin part the research and development phase of SENTRY, that is, that a major\npurpose of the DISCOVERY series is development flight testing of basic hard-\nware (vehicles, guidance, recovery system, and ground environment) which\nwould ultimately be used for SENTRY. It would, perhaps, have been preferable\nif this inference could have been avoided but it was in fact foreseen before the\npublic announcement of DISCOVERY that technical speculation would take this\ndirection. Fortunately, there has been little speculation to date to the effect\nthat the DISCOVERY series includes any operational flights of a reconnaissance\nvehicle. Given this development, it would be altogether infeasible to deny\nthat there is an element of truth in this speculation, and to attempt to do so\nwould simply call the whole CORONA cover story into question. Accordingly,\ncurrent efforts are devoted to emphasizing the specific objectives of the\nDISCOVERY series as stated in the official cover story while freely admitting\nthat this alleged research and development program will benefit not only the\nachievement of space flight and the development of early warning and communica- -\ntions satellites but also the development of the SENTRY reconnaissance system,\nwhich has long been an officially announced and identified Military program.\n4. The above circumstances are cited as background for the judgment\nexpressed in this and the following paragraph on the feasibility of maintaining\nreasonably effective cover for an extended CORONA series in 1960. The first\nsuch judgment which is offered here with some trepidation is that the principal\nthreat to the security of the present or extended CORONA program is not that\nof unauthorized disclosure by properly witting individuals and that this threat,\nwith good luck, can be contained. Major efforts have been made to limit the"
}