Imaging the world in a barrel: CORONA and the clandestine convergence of the earth sciences

The CORONA satellite reconnaissance programme (1958-72), the first American enterprise for secret photography from space, was predicated on fundamenta l progress within the strategic earth sciences necessary to resolve the Fig ure of the Earth with sufficient fidelity to wage or prevent nuclear war. C ORONA in turn rapidly evolved from an interim reconnaissance system to a so phisticated series of earth remote-sensing imagery and data systems, which initiated the modern era of global satellite remote sensing. These innovati ve scientific applications were the results of a productive convergence in the post-war strategic earth sciences, the details and mechanisms of which were diffused and concealed by elaborate security protocols. With CORONA's declassification, and prospects for further declassification of Cold War-er a archives, a window is opened into the clandestine reconfiguration of the strategic earth sciences and their complex integration with military and in telligence research and applications during the Cold War.