Report, Project Corona - Security in 1960

17 March 1959 The PROJECT CORONA - SECURITY IN 1960 Reference: Memorandum "Project CORONA" dated 11 March 1959 (COR-0372) 1. The referenced memorandum proposes that a series of eight CORONA flights be scheduled in calendar year 1960 as a continuation of the flights currently scheduled for the next eight months. A question arises as to whether, if this supplementary activity is approved and undertaken, an effort should be made, as with the series for 1959, to conceal its true purpose. If an affirmative decision is made on this matter, the 1960 flights would presumably be described as a continuation of the publicly announced DISCOVERY series, The alternative course of action might involve the identification forthwith within the Military establishment of the 1960 activity as a reconnaissance project entirely separate from the DISCOVERY series, to be handled in all respects as a normal Military project, and involve in due time a public announcement of the true mission. This is primarily a foreign policy decision but it requires an estimate (a) of the feasibility of maintaining security for a second year, and (b) of the impact on the original 1959 CORONA program of a public announcement concerning a 1960 series. The following comments are addressed to these topics. 2. The DISCOVERY series of satellite flights has been publicly described as a research and development activity with a variety of specific objectives including development flight testing of hardware, development and testing of procedures for the recovery of a satellite payload after flight, the study of environmental conditions relevant to human flight including measurement of certain types of radiation encountered at relatively low altitudes, tests of a satellite infra-red sensor as the prototype of an early warning device, and the exercise of tracking stations and other elements of a new ground environment, The official cover story states or implies that achievement of these specific objectives will contribute to the broad purposes of bringing a number of Military subsystems closer to operational status, of the achievement of man-in-space flight, and more generally contributing importantly to the ability of the Military establishment to design and operate missile and satellite systems. This official cover story was carefully designed and is constantly being supplemented in an effort to satisfy two requirements: First, that the operations undertaken under the name of the DISCOVERY series should not themselves be Military COR-0265 Authority CIA Lth 0522000 GD 2016-11642 Copy No. / By 004 NLE Date 14,26/16