The CIA's Secret Corona Spy Satellite Program

On August 19th 1960 the CIA recovered the first images from a Spy Satellite as part of its secret Corona program. The Corona satellite flew from 1960 to 1972, providing important intelligence on the Soviet Union and other potential adversaries. The technology of the time forced the use of photographic film which would have to be recovered using a reentry capsule and a capture aircraft.

The program was declassified in the 1990's along with all the images, however the reports made from those images continue to be secret.

Lots more about the program is available in the CIA's archives:

[Khalrua]

My grandpa worked on this! He was the Kodak VP, Head of film. When it was declassified my gramps got to keep some of the photo negatives

[spider]

Other youtubers: Hey you can say Corona now without being instantly demonized. *Nervous laughter.
Scott: Let's test that...corona corona corona corona corona.

[jworldwide]

CIA, Corona, and space.

This is MASTERFUL conspiritard bait.

[wolfsmith]

Here in Arizona, between Phoenix and Tucson is Casa Grande, where you can still find huge concrete maltese crosses set into the ground at regular intervals that were used to calibrate the cameras on Corona satellites. Many of the crosses are gone now but if you know where to look, some remain.

[triibustevonkass]

Soviet Luna 3 took photos of Far side of Luna using US made unused photographic film, recovered from US spy satellites or spy balloons. Soviets didn't have photographic film technology for extreme environments by then.
Vladimir Surdin actually told that in his lectures in Moscow University.
He was,
as a student of Moscow University, a apprentice of the people who built Luna-3.

[imagineaworld]

This is the click baitiest, not click bait thing I have ever seen..
Should I just say a very Manley video

[tbx]

I knew Corona was early, but I didn’t realize it was the very first spy sat programm at all!

[Olysker]

"The CIA brought Corona back from space."

This proves it. I knew Sasquatch wasn't lying when he told me so.

[vincemarenger]

Nice title. Now Karens will share this video on Facebook without watching it and exclaiming it is proof of some conspiracy.

[SkyChaserCom]

I also remember that these also had a "salt plug", which ensured that if it landed in the ocean it would sink after a certain amount of time - Allowing recovery efforts BUT preventing unauthorized folks from finding the return bucket / film package.

[dionemoolman]

Imagine having to spend the whole video saying “sun atmosphere” instead of corona.

[tripwire]

TLDR for conspiracy theorists that only came here for the title: "The CIA brought corona back from space in a bucket" (10:27)

[Zoomer]

I had a relative who was in the Air Force out in Hawaii and was a member of the Catch a Falling Star unit. He flew in the back of a cargo place with the back end open and a rig that caught the parachute of the Corona camera film pod. It was a top secret posting and we did not know about it until after he passed away in 2009.

[cfgrammer]

My father worked on secret government projects for Kodak, including Oxcart and the Lunar Orbiter. When Corona was declassified and I mentioned a Popular Science article about it, his comment was, "You can't believe everything you read in Popular Science." Leading me to believe that he also worked on Corona, although I never specifically asked.

[keg]

Read "Insisting on the Impossible" a biography of Edwin Land, one of the greatest innovators second in patents only to Thomas Edison. He led the project that designed and built the Corona cameras. He also invented 'instant photography' for Polaroid after his daughter asked him one day why she can't see the picture he just took of her. A great inventor.

[jamescurran]

6:19 I couldn’t resist saying “enhance!”

[steadystacking]

I was in a VA hospital for a few weeks and made friends with a gentleman who described recovering these satellites. Said there was almost always a Soviet plane shadowing in hopes they didn’t successfully retrieve them

[camplays]

I was playing ksp and the sound of your launch startled me

[colincormier]

I love how interesting and at the same time informational these videos are

[mjproebstle]

boy that Thor booster nozzle and verniers jets were really oscillating after liftoff 😬