The 1966-photographs were taken by the American spy-satellite Corona KH 4-A. This satellite-type – in operation from August of 1963-October of 1969 - was part of the Corona program, controlled by the CIA. The first Corona-satellite was launched in 1959, the last (KH 4-B) stopped taking pictures in 1972. The purpose of the Corona-program was to provide surveillance-photographs from in particular USSR and The People’s Republic of China, but from certain other countries and regions as well.
These photographs were de-classified in 1995 and have since been of great use in various fields of non-military research. The Corona-satellites orbited at altitudes between 120-160 kilometer above the surface of the Earth. The pictures were shot with custom made cameras using a 70 millimeter film from Kodak-Eastman.
Corona KH 4-A satellite. Image: Guiseppe De Chiara 1968. The image is reproduced under Creative Commons.
When a mission was completed and it was time to retrieve the film, the so-called film bucket – a section of the satellite – was released. The film bucket, which had a heat protection shield, ejected a parachute when it reached a hight of approximately 18 kilometer above the surface of the Earth. Some film buckets were caught while still airborne by military planes equipped with a ’claw’ – in other cases the film bucket landed in the ocean where a vessel from the US Marine would pick it up.
