Lockheed's Spy Satellite Programs

CORONA was America's first eye-in-the-sky space mission replacing the U-2 flights ended by the shooting down of a flight in 1960.  Lockheed Missiles and Space Systems (Lockheed) here in Silicon Valley was the system integrator of the Corona payload which included new camera, film and recovery capsule as well as the developer of never flown Agena which served as the upper stage to the Thor booster and spacecraft.  It was breakthrough technology in all aspects.

The CORONA program depended on the development of a new spacecraft, Agena, designed and built by Lockheed.  Agena subsequently went on to support multiple other missions for many other customers, and essentially became America's first space utility vehicle, with 362 launches over three decades.  Lockheed veterans will discuss the original CORONA mission and the key challenges Agena had to meet for long-term success.  They will illustrate how Agena subsystems and technologies coevolved and advanced together with system integration and test techniques, and how the program experiences taught the aerospace industry many fundamental lessons, including how to successfully specify and accommodate products from multiple suppliers.