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space spying

• Figure 3 Letter to the president Johnson about the • Figure 4 The general objectives of DoD-NASA
ongoing tussle between NASA and Department of Defense Coordination of the Earth Resources Survey Program

Agreement on NASA Reconnaissance Programs” in Apollo missions NASA used many types of classified
August 1963. highly-capable advanced cameras, such as E-1 cam-
According to The letter written by Secretary of era; although the 1963 agreement was later modified
Defense, Robert S. McNamara to the administrator of the following year because NRO feared that NASA
NASA James E. Webb, it was understood that NASA could not maintain security under it.
could acquire and use classified cameras for Lunar Later more declassified documents provided de-
photography. McNamara wrote to Webb: “Dear Jim, tails about other high-quality cameras like GAMBIT
By this note, I am transmitting to you the signed 1 high-resolution camera, Hycon lunar topographic
agreement between NASA and DOD/CIA (the latter camera, which was a modified Air Force KA-7A cam-
as represented by their joint operational unit, the era flown on an unknown reconnaissance aircraft.
NRO) concerning NASA (this part is redacted) pro- Apollo 15, 16, and17 service modules needed more
grams. (letter continued)”. high-quality cameras so the more capable Itek pano-
At that time, NASA needed high-quality photo- ramic camera and a Fairchild mapping and stellar
graphs to select the Apollo landing sites on the Moon. camera were flown in. The former was a modified
For that reason, NASA officials contacted the Nation- IRIS II optical bar camera used in U-2s (Document
al Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and asked about how 23), and the latter was a modified Dual Image Stel-
would they use the classified cameras like Kodak’s lar Index Camera carried by CORONA satellites from
SAMOS E-1 film readout system. Although it was can- 1967-1972. It is not clear whether these instruments
celled later in 1961. At that time there were several were acquired under either of the above agreements.
agreements between NASA, DOD/CIA and NRO. For Whereas it is quite clear that NRO helped NASA to

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