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Photograph of the secret facility at Groom Lake taken by the Skylab 4

astronauts. (credit: NASA)

Secret Apollo
by Dwayne A. Day
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Monday, November 26, 2007

In May 1960 Francis Gary Powers fell out of a cold Siberian

sky and into the flames of an international incident. But
before the Soviet Union revealed that Powers was still alive,
NASA implemented a cover story, rolling out a U-2
spyplane painted in agency markings and claiming that the
missing airplane was a NASA aircraft on a civilian research
mission. When the truth was finally made public, NASA was
embarrassed and senior agency officials were outraged
because they believed that they had been mislead by the
intelligence community.
When a new NASA administrator took over in early 1961,
NASAs relationship with the intelligence community
apparently improved significantly. But NASAs mission of
publicly proclaiming American technological capabilities and
putting spacecraft and astronauts into Earth orbit created
natural tensions with the agencies tasked with collecting
information on Americas adversaries and obsessed with
secrecy. Several incidents revealed in newly declassified
documents from the Apollo era illustrate these tensions.
The Apollo program was carried out amid the klieg lights of
the press on the world stage. That was, after all, the point
it had to be public, even the failures. However, there were
aspects of Apollo that were classified. Relatively minor
aspects, admittedly, but ones that still affected American
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national security.
In the event that an Apollo
There were aspects
of Apollo that were
spacecraft was unable to leave
classified. Relatively
Earth orbit, which could have
minor aspects,
admittedly, but ones
happened if there had been a
that still affected
problem firing the third stage
American national
engine on the Saturn 5 which placed security.
the Command and Service Modules and the Lunar Module
on a lunar trajectory, or an early problem with the Lunar
Module, the Apollo astronauts had a backup mission. They
were supposed to circle the Earth and take photographs of
the surface using the various cameras that they had aboard
their spacecraft. Although this would have been a
scientifically disappointing mission, and a major propaganda
failure, it was NASAs best attempt at salvaging something
from the mission. For some of the later Apollo missions, the
Command Module mounted a powerful camera intended for
photographing the surface of the Moon. In Earth orbit, this
would have produced relatively good photographs of the
ground, better than any publicly released beforein fact, of
a quality not publicly released until the 1980s.
Whenever the missions of government bureaucracies
overlap government officials seek to coordinate their
activities. This is to ensure that one agency does not do
something that contradicts the policies of another agency,
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possibly causing embarrassment for the leadership and

confusion for the public. In the case of NASA astronauts
taking photographs of the Earth from space, this overlapped
the jurisdiction of the US intelligence community,
specifically the National Reconnaissance Office (or NRO),
which was responsible for operating reconnaissance
satellites for intelligence purposes. All American manned
space missions starting with Gemini were coordinated with
the intelligence community and astronaut photographs of
the Earth were first reviewed by intelligence analysts before
they were made public. In fact, in 1968 on the unmanned
Apollo 6 mission, NASA planned on carrying an engineering
camera to determine the orientation of the spacecraft in
orbit, and sought intelligence community approval of this
plan because the camera would take pictures of portions of
the Earth at higher resolution than previously released.
In 1972, as NASA prepared for the last Apollo mission to the
Moon, the agency sought to coordinate its plans for a
contingency mission with the intelligence community, and
created a bit of a stir in the process. The Apollo 17
spacecraft was carrying the Apollo Panoramic Camera,
which had also been carried aboard Apollos 15 and 16.
Previous photographs taken by astronauts with handheld
cameras could not show much detail, but the new camera
was much more powerful. More importantly, unlike
previous missions, because of its unique trajectory, Apollo
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17 could possibly overfly China and the Soviet Union, and

the astronauts could return politically sensitive
photography. NASA wanted the astronauts to take
photographs of these areas.
The intelligence community was naturally sensitive to this
issue. They were involved in a rather strange game of
denying the obvious. Although it was widely known that the
United States launched reconnaissance satellites, the official
US government position was to not comment on the subject
at all in order to not create any more questions, or
international controversy, about the subject. In fact, the US
government had even invented a euphemismnational
technical meansin order to avoid referring to satellite
reconnaissance in arms control negotiations. Photographs
taken by American astronauts of the Soviet Union and
China, some taken at relatively good resolution, could
prompt awkward questions about American policies and
capabilities. This was amplified by the particular capabilities
of the Apollo Panoramic Camera.
The Apollo Panoramic Camera was
a derivative of an aerial
reconnaissance camera known as
the IRIS II, which was itself a
derivative of the KA-80 camera.
The KA-80 was originally designed
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Although it was
widely known that
the United States
launched
reconnaissance
satellites, the
official US
government position
was to not comment
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was to not comment

for use on the SR-71 spyplane and on the subject at all
in order to not
later the U-2. It was what was
create any more
described as an optical bar design, questions, or
international
which enabled it to photograph a
controversy, about
long thin image on a long strip of
the subject.
film at high resolution, and yet still
remain compact enough to fit within the camera bay of an
airplane or a spacecraft. It had a 61-centimeter focal length
and from a 425-kilometer orbit could produce ground
resolution of between 7.6 to 10.7 meters, meaning that a
photographic interpreter could spot and identify large
objects like buildings and some ships. At the time, American
reconnaissance satellites fell into two general categories:
search systems with resolution of about 23 meters and
spotting systems with resolution as good as 15
centimeters. But the Apollo camera would have returned
pictures far better than any ever made public before.
In October and November 1972, NASA contacted the
National Reconnaissance Office and sought permission to
take photographs of China and the Soviet Union using the
Panoramic Camera and other cameras during an Apollo 17
contingency mission. A letter by Major Harold S. Coyle Jr. to
the Director of the National Reconnaissance Office John
McLucas from November 9 indicates that the NRO had
reservations about NASAs proposal. According to Coyle, the
Office of the Secretary of Defense also was concerned about
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the proposal and recommended that NASA take a more

conservative approachi.e. not take any photographs of
the Soviet Union or China during an Apollo contingency
mission. NASA also approached both the State Department
and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency for their
comment. The latter agency was concerned that NASAs
plan could impact the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
NASA was, after all, proposing something that would
prompt questions about national technical means.
In addition to proposing something that made intelligence
agency officials nervous, NASA also apparently ruffled some
feathers by not following the proper procedures and
submitting its plan to each agency separately rather than
via a coordinating committee that had been created for just
such requests. In fact, by this time NASA apparently had a
reputation for going out of channels for such requests,
which annoyed those in the intelligence community.
In response to the various concerns expressed by several
agencies, NASA redrafted its proposal, but still sought to
take images of so-called denied areas. They then took
their revised proposal to a special committee involved in
approving all overhead photography plans. Unfortunately,
those records have not yet been publicly released, so it is
unclear if NASA obtained final approval of its plans to
photograph parts of China and the Soviet Union if Apollo 17
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was unable to go to the Moon.

Of course, Apollo 17 did go to the Moon, meaning that the
debate was essentially mootexcept for any hard feelings it
may have left among those in the intelligence community
who believed that NASA occasionally acted against their
interests.
This was not the first time that NASA had annoyed the
intelligence community with its astronaut photography, and
it certainly would not be the last. In 1974, astronauts aboard
the Skylab 4 mission had photographed the top secret
airfield at Groom Lake in Nevada. Groom Lake, often
euphemistically referred to as Area 51, is the site of
classified aircraft research and is where both the U-2 and
SR-71 spyplanes were first flown. Despite apparently
explicit orders not to do so, the astronauts had taken a
photograph of the airfield. This prompted a debate within
the government after the film was returned to Earth. NASA
wanted the photograph released in keeping with its mission
of being open and public about its activities. Members of the
intelligence community wanted the photograph classified
because it depicted a secret facility. Other members of the
government questioned the precedent of classifying
previously unclassified material. (See Astronauts and Area
51: the Skylab Incident, The Space Review, January 9,
2006).
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In my previous article on this

What these various
subject I stated that the photograph incidents highlight is
that the relationship
in question had not been publicly
between NASA and
released. This was untrue, and the the intelligence
community was not
result of sloppy research on my part always a smooth
(I assumed that because numerous one.
Area 51 buffs had not previously located the photograph, it
was not in publicly accessible archivesI broke one of my
own research rules and never bothered to search myself.
Then again, nobodys perfect, and this isnt the first time
that the Internet has perpetuated an untruth) It turns out
that the photograph was placed in NASAs archive of Skylab
photographs. But nobody had noticed. So NASA won its
argument with the intelligence community over the
photograph. The photograph is published above.
What these various incidents highlight is that the
relationship between NASA and the intelligence community
was not always a smooth one. They could coordinate their
activities if necessary, but they did not always agreeNASA
espoused openness and peaceful use of space, whereas the
intelligence community believed that national security
required carefully guarding the capabilities of American
cameras and other intelligence collection systems. And
although these episodes illustrate examples where members
of the intelligence community were unhappy with NASA,
the civilian space agency had been burned by that
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intelligence community in a very public way back in 1960.

How long any ill feelings remained at NASA over the U-2
incident is still unknownbut perhaps can someday be
answered.

Dwayne Day can be reached at zirconic@cox.net.

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