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  Spies and Shuttles: NASA's Secret Relationships with the DoD and CIA (James David)

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Author Topic:   Spies and Shuttles: NASA's Secret Relationships with the DoD and CIA (James David)
cspg
Member

Posts: 6210
From: Geneva, Switzerland
Registered: May 2006

posted 06-01-2014 10:45 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for cspg   Click Here to Email cspg     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Spies and Shuttles: NASA's Secret Relationships with the DoD and CIA
by James E. David
In this real life spy saga, James E. David reveals the extensive and largely hidden interactions between NASA and U.S. defense and intelligence departments. The story begins with the establishment of NASA in 1958 and follows the agency through its growth, not only in scope but also in complexity.

In "Spies and Shuttles," David digs through newly declassified documents to ultimately reveal how NASA became a strange bedfellow to the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He tracks NASA's early cooperation — supplying cover stories for covert missions, analyzing the Soviet space program, providing weather and other scientific data from its satellites, and monitoring missile tests — that eventually devolved into NASA's reliance on DoD for political and financial support for the Shuttle.

David also examines the restrictions imposed on such activities as photographing the Earth from space and the intrusive review mechanisms to ensure compliance. The ties between NASA and the intelligence community have historically remained unexplored, and David's riveting book is the first to investigate the twists and turns of this labyrinthine relationship.

  • Hardcover: 400 pages
  • Publisher: University Press of Florida (January 27, 2015)
  • ISBN-10: 0813049997
  • ISBN-13: 978-0813049991
Note: Anyone has any idea as to why the Hubble Space Telescope is depicted on the cover (I emailed the publisher about this — no answer)? Is there a link between the DOD-CIA and Hubble?

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 06-01-2014 11:43 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The National Reconnaissance Office's (NRO) "Key Hole" (KH-11) spy satellites are believed to resemble the Hubble Space Telescope in size and shape.
It is believed to resemble the Hubble Space Telescope in size and shape, as the satellites were shipped in similar containers. Furthermore, a NASA history of the Hubble, in discussing the reasons for switching from a 3-meter main mirror to a 2.4-meter design, states: "In addition, changing to a 2.4-meter mirror would lessen fabrication costs by using manufacturing technologies developed for military spy satellites." A CIA history states that the primary mirror on the first KH-11s measured 2.34 meters, but sizes increased in later versions. NRO led the development of a computer controlled mirror polishing technique, which was subsequently also used for the polishing of the primary mirror of the Hubble Space Telescope.

cspg
Member

Posts: 6210
From: Geneva, Switzerland
Registered: May 2006

posted 06-02-2014 06:40 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for cspg   Click Here to Email cspg     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
It was my guess that there was a relationship between manufacturing process between Hubble and KH satellite (at least optical ones). But then what does the shuttle have to do with this? If memory serves, it didn't launch any KH-11, only radar satellites and early warning?

Jim Behling
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Posts: 1463
From: Cape Canaveral, FL
Registered: Mar 2010

posted 06-02-2014 10:08 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jim Behling   Click Here to Email Jim Behling     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by cspg:
But then what does the shuttle have to do with this?
It was in the planning and there were spacecraft built.

cspg
Member

Posts: 6210
From: Geneva, Switzerland
Registered: May 2006

posted 06-02-2014 11:23 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for cspg   Click Here to Email cspg     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
And the Challenger accident put an end to this?

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 06-02-2014 11:35 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Yes, as Dwayne Day notes in one of his several articles on this topic for The Space Review:
...the Challenger accident led to a cancellation of the policy of moving all national security payloads to the shuttle. If this upgraded KH-11 did eventually enter service, it probably never flew aboard the Space Shuttle, but instead used the Titan IV.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 04-21-2015 06:32 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The National Security Archive at George Washington University has published an electronic briefing book comprising the more than 50 source documents obtained by James David in the course of researching his book, "Spies and Shuttles."
Even though Congress's intention in forming NASA was to establish a purely civilian space agency, according to David a combination of circumstances led the agency to commingle its activities with black programs operated by the U.S. military and Intelligence Community. This often tight cooperation did not, however, keep disputes from bubbling over on issues such as cost sharing, access to classified information, encryption of data originally intended for civilian use, and delays to military satellite launches caused by the Challenger disaster.

Over the years, classification restrictions have kept most of the story of NASA's secret activities out of the public eye. Today's (April 10, 2015) posting brings to light previously unpublished primary source material that underpins Spies and Shuttles and other important literature on the subject. The records were acquired through agency declassification review procedures, specific declassification requests, and archival research.

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