Secret partners: the national reconnaissance office and the intelligence-industrial-academic complex

ABSTRACT Satellite reconnaissance emerged as an irreplaceable source of U.S. intelligence during the Cold War. The vast resources required to build intelligence satellites quickly transformed space reconnaissance into an industrial-scale activity. Though satellite reconnaissance primarily served policymakers in Washington, two of its critical nodes for research, development, and operations were in Sunnyvale, California and Rochester, New York. In both places, a coalition of scientists and engineers in corporations, universities, and intelligence agencies collaborated to create satellites designed to penetrate the Iron Curtain. These technical experts were critical not only for the development of satellite reconnaissance systems, but also for their operation.