CORONA: The Original Spy Satellite Program

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[@megaprojects9649]

Check out Squarespace: squarespace.com/megaprojects for 10% off on your first purchase.

[@rolfkarlstad4015]

go check some facts before you ask for money. You never get it right. Your narration is passable, but you never get it.

[@firefox5926]

8:27 no actuly .. its square space this time :P

[@slithery9291]

An interesting fact that you missed out is that the film return capsules weren't solid metal. They had a salt plug in them that meant if the aircraft recovery wasn't successful and they couldn't get a boat out to the required location then after a few hours the capsules would take on water and sink into the depths.

[@rolfkarlstad4015]

That's the thing you want to pick on? Among all the errors?

[@pretzelhunt]

Salt is a metal

[@abeeson86]

@@pretzelhunt Salt has a metal in it, it is not itself a metal.

[@pretzelhunt]

​@@abeeson86 no, that's your metal salt shaker

[@myownboss1]

@@pretzelhunt totally unnecessary comment…. A truly ‘smart’ person knows what Slithery was pointing out in his fun fact: that there was a way to prevent interception of a capsule in case recovery was unsuccessful. Stating that salt is a metal was not necessary….

[@inconspicuousiago2358]

Came to this video directly from the Business Blaze one of yelling at the sun and claims of "Italian blood", and I was transfixed during the ad-read to follow the gesticulation. Hopping channels the Simon Cinematic Universe is head-trippy.

[@StefanMedici]

Cocaine helps... Allegedly

[@AvinashSewpersadh]

Business Blaze is all you need in life

[@mickmccrory8534]

What most people don't know about the Hubble telescope is..... basically, it's a KH-11 spy satellite that looks up, instead of down.

[@StoneInMySandal]

That’s right! Just like my McLaren and my Unimog are basically the same.

[@Matt-dc8lp]

Sometimes...

[@dr4d1s]

When the NRO gave NASA the telescope, one of the stipulations was that it could never look down at Earth. With all of NASA's data being publicly available, if the satellite would have looked down at Earth, scientists from all over the world would have been able to see the pictures and work out what the KH-11 capabilities are. edit - changed the agency from DoD to NRO. Also spelling mistakes.

[@xyzpdq1122]

And the cost of the Hubble was considered outlandish, but we spent way way way more on the keyhole satellites

[@Matt-dc8lp]

@@dr4d1s "offline for maintenance and upgrades"

[@stevea2909]

My Father in law worked on this for Kodak, our family didn't know of this until his retirement. Quite a few interesting things happened in the early days.

[@AZFrank4x4]

My dad also worked on this project, KAD, Kodak Apparatus Division. Same with us, we didn't know what he was working on until just a year after he passed away and the project was declassified... it all fell under the Rosenberg Act of secrecy.

[@gordonlawrence1448]

There was something similar in the UK and it was supposedly "lithography" equipment. I worked on that in the 80's.

[@AZFrank4x4]

Also, out in Arizona, Casa Grande, is a 17x17 mile grid they used to calibrate the camera lens with. A lot of these Army Core of Engineer concrete arrow/crosses with a 1' dia medallion in the center are still out there.

[@lukestrawwalker]

The Corona satellites used a "film bucket" which was basically a reentry vehicle equipped with a deorbit engine and heat shield. The film from the camera was wound into the film bucket, which once all the film was exposed, the satellite would then be commanded at the next proper opportunity to release the film bucket for return to Earth, which would reenter the atmosphere and then separate, deploy its parachute, and preferably be captures in midair by the flying boxcars. Failing this, the film capsule was designed to float for recovery by pre-positioned Navy assets, but should this fail, the capsule was equipped with a plug made of salt, which slowly dissolved in the seawater it was bobbing in, and after a few hours would dissolve completely and allow the film capsule to fill with seawater and sink, preventing it from being recovered by Soviet submarines or spy trawlers who would undoubtedly be trying to home in on its location and attempt to grab it before the recovery forces could, if it landed off-target. It's the same reason the Soviets put explosives on a timer that started when the spacecraft landed on their Korabl-Sputnik spy satellites, which were designed to land on land, so that if they went awry and landed in hostile territory, they would self-destruct before they were recovered by the enemy. Corona film buckets reentries were timed and located so that the bucket would land at sea in the event of a malfunction, and thus the salt plug would be a foolproof means of sinking it after a few hours leeway for a late recovery, if recovery couldn't be accomplished in that time period. If the satellite malfunctioned and landed on land in hostile territory, well, that would be very problematical. The reason for these security measures was, if the enemy were to get their hands on your film, or even worse on the camera equipment itself or even parts of it from a crash, they could "reverse-engineer" the capabilities of your camera from the film alone-- it would reveal just HOW MUCH your satellites could actually resolve and photograph, and thus give the enemy valuable information to better hide their own activities or assets you were trying to photograph, or worse yet, steal your designs and improve their own camera systems for greater photography to be used against you. The Corona satellites themselves, including the cameras and rocket stages, were NOT designed for recovery and would presumably be commanded to fire the rocket engine to reenter the atmosphere over a remote area of Earth's oceans, so that it would burn up in the atmosphere and any parts that might survive would land in the ocean and be destroyed and sink irretrievably to the ocean floor. Later! OL J R :)

[@indrajithg]

"The sleeping giant had not only been awoken, but it has also been kicked in the nuts while it was asleep, and a crap had been taken in its cereal." Whoever wrote this deserves a medal. 🤣🤣

[@zmark7843]

what sounds really impressive to me is how they managed to catch film cartridges falling from orbit with airplane, and having the films still usable afterward, before the age of stuff like modern day electronics or gps

[@clark9992]

The US did not learn of "Joe I", as the intelligence analysts dubbed the first Soviet atomic explosion, from the Soviets. Indeed, the Soviets classified it as top secret. The Americans learned of it themselves by way of a program they had established to fly regular flights of WB-29 aircraft (the W stood for weather, which was the cover for what it was actually doing) which flew from Misawa Air force base in Japan to Eilson Air Force Base in Alaska. The planes carried filters to capture radioactive debris from atomic tests. A few days after the explosion, a WB-29 returned to base with the evidence. Also, although there were probably concerns about Sputnik being the vanguard of Soviet espionage satellites, the primary worry was that if they could launch a satellite, it would only be a small step further to launch a nuclear warhead to any place in the world.

[@michaellehman1549]

Yes, the unit involved in nuclear intelligence collection and analysis was AFOAT-1, later AFTAC. There is a key understanding that is often missed that links this program, the U-2, and the CORONA/KEYHOLE programs. All were at the time of initiation the highest level strategic recon/intel programs of their time. AFOAT-1, by 1951, was able to determine Soviet Pu-239 production within 5% by analysis of the global atmospheric loading of krypton-85, one atom of which was produced for every atom of Pu-239. My father was involved in this program, which used a classified manifold on the output of a standard USAF oxygen generator to boil off isotopes of intel interest to capture Kr-85. Air Force intelligence used this hard data to argue that the USSR would have delivery vehicles to launch that many weapons. This was origin of the "bomber gap" and "missile gap" arguments. Ike and the CIA were skeptical of this, thus the need for the U-2 to locate the bombers and missiles that the Air Force argued should be there. The imagery the CIA's U-2s returned showed mostly empty airfields and a lack of missiles, substantially undercutting the Air Force position. CORONA was needed because the CIA forecast that Soviet air defenses would eventually make direct overflights by aircraft too dangerous. But the need was so great - and the satellite was not yet ready - that the CIA kept flying the U-2 over the USSR until the eventual happened, several years after first predicted. The far more comprehensive satellite imagery confirmed the U-2's initially rather spotty coverage, which the Air Force argued had simply missed the predicted bombers and missiles. Thus the "gaps" arguments quietly disappeared into history as embarrassing missteps by the USAF. All three systems were linked, each superseded in turn by the other as the primary strategic intel system of the US during the early Cold War.

[@clark9992]

@@michaellehman1549 The perceived bomber gap was not just a result of inadequate information. The Soviets deliberately misled the world by introducing their new M-4 Bison jet bomber at the Tushino airshow in 1955, by flying the ten they had past the stands, out of site, and looping back to fly back again several times. The number seen was used to calculate an erroneous production rate. I don't know if the Soviets wished they had not been so successful in their subterfuge or not.

[@michaellehman1549]

@@clark9992 Yes, the subterfuge with multiple fly-bys of the same flight of Bison was a long known public factor in the mis-step over the bomber gap. It was offered up more as an excuse than an explanation. The data on Soviet plutonium production was both earlier and "harder" than the faked fly-by. Since the Air Force held the high card on this quantification of the Soviet threat, its argument that the means of delivery had to be assumed prevailed at the time. However, there was little hard evidence produced to substantiate a credible threat based on what was know about Soviet strategic air forces. That's what made the missile gap threat as a follow-on to the bomber gap convincing, which was one explanation the Air Force gave for a lack of documentation of Soviet strategic forces equivalent to SAC. Except that the CIA came up with very little to illustrate the estimate claims made by Air Force intelligence once imagery became available with the U-2 and satellite programs. This made the huge SAC build-up somewhat over -built, to say the least, but fortunately also allowed for an eventual cooling off of tensions that allowed us to all survive the Cold War. BTW, reviewing the video again and its discussion of Explorer-1 reminded me of something else Dad had been involved in. One of the early space missions involved a chimp, IIRC, and he helped make the suit the simian wore. This was when he was working at a development unit that shrunk the typical atmospheric sampling generator from room-sized to refrigerator-size making it possible to more discretely locate such capabilities closely in relation to targets.

[@shaukatmehmood2901]

🤔 How about this new variant as described in this short video ❓ kzbin.info/www/bejne/pXyqkoGgfNR3rpI

[@JamesTTierce]

@@michaellehman1549 In what way was the cold war cool off "allowed" by the build up of SAC? Just because it happened doesnt mean.... you know

[@DanielNoblett1111]

It is suspected Eisenhower held back launching a satellite prior to Sputnik, letting the Russians orbit a satellite first to set the precedence allowing unrestricted overflights of satellites over enemy territory. Eisenhower wanted spy satellites especially after the shoot down of the U2, and didn't want the Soviets objecting to satellite overflights. This is a primary reason Eisenhower was not panicked when Sputnik went up, he simply congratulated the Russians and let LBJ and congress panic and drive headlong into a space program to catch up and get his spy satellites.

[@JamesTTierce]

"his"

[@kl0wnkiller912]

I worked on the DSCS series of satellites during my time in the US Army in the mid 1980s. DSCS (Defense Satellite Communications System) was not a 'spy satellite' but rather was a communications system for the military. On one occasion though I was allowed to sit in on a meeting regarding the spy satellites and I did see photos taken by actual military spy satellites. In the mid-1980s the resolution was so good that you could (under optimal environmental conditions) easily identify a person getting in or out of a vehicle. Three were a lot of variable though that had to be 'just right' in order for that to happen so that sort of resolution was rare... but it was possible. SIMON: you should do one on the US military 'Project Iron Horse'. Pretty sure it is all declassified by now. That was a world-spanning, ground based listening system that was truly a huge accomplishment. The site I was stationed at is now the only remaining site and is still being operated by the German Government.

[@Squirrelitis]

My father worked for Lockheed and on the Corona project in the 25+ years he was there. That's about all I can say on it for he fully understood what "top secret" was and what it meant. Thus he took to his grave all he knew.

[@CaptainOveur69]

What a pointless comment

[@patrickbrumm4120]

never told you about the stripper poles in the board room?

[@AllisterCaine]

@@patrickbrumm4120 I'll be reporting that critical breach of security. Nobody was supposed to know about those Patrick!

[@patrickbrumm4120]

@@AllisterCaine and do you mind explaining the ketchup stains on the ceiling?

[@Fortunes.Fool.]

"Bridge of Spies" - the book that inspired the Tom Hanks movie - is a great read if you're interested in Powers' crash. So many things led to that ill-fated flight including the maintenance problems with that particular plane. The audiobook is fantastic, you really get a picture of just how scary that plane was fly.

[@michaelwhalen2442]

"Operation Overflight," firsthand account by Gary Powers and Curt Gentry. Highly recommended.

[@jeremyedowd]

Agreed, a very good read. 👍

[@ignitionfrn2223]

0:55 - Chapter 1 - Born out of infamy 4:20 - Chapter 2 - Precursors 6:40 - Mid roll ads 8:35 - Chapter 3 - Development begins 11:15 - Chapter 4 - The age of the satellite 14:05 - Chapter 5 - The nuts and bolts 17:00 - Chapter 6 - Always there always watching

[@lukestrawwalker]

At 13:10-- If the KH-11 "Kennan" looks familiar, it's because it was basically the template for the Hubble Space Telescope, which was modeled after it. Of course the "special optics" used by the KH-11 remain classified and were not used on Hubble, the basic spacecraft chassis design was used, housing a large main mirror and of course a suite of special optical scientific instruments and various other modifications to perform its specialized mission of staring out into the deep universe, rather than down at various countries and their goings-on on Earth below. Many of the "teething problems" with Hubble were actually well known and understood problems which the KH program engineers had previously had to deal with, but they weren't allowed to discuss it with their civilian counterparts until after they experienced similar problems that had to be corrected, such as "popping" structures and solar arrays which expanded and "popped" as they heated up and cooled down flying into and out of Earth's shadow twice in every 90 minute orbit, a problem which STILL prevents Hubble from making observations for several minutes during each orbit as the telescope passes into an out of Earth's shadow as it orbits in its Low Earth Orbit (which is a particularly bad place for a space telescope to be anyway, as there's a huge honkin' planet (Earth) in it's way for about 45 minutes out of every roughly 90 minute orbit... which is why DEEP SPACE or at least a highly elliptical orbit is MUCH more desirable for a space telescope, but unfortunately the design of Hubble to be launched and serviced by a space shuttle, which could never reach such orbits, limited Hubble to only being capable of being visited by shuttles if placed into a low Earth orbit.) This is also precisely WHY the Webb Space Telescope has been placed a million miles out from Earth away from the Sun, since not only do its super-cold infrared telescope imagers and equipment need the cold environment of deep space shadowed by its sun-shield, but also so it has an UNINTERRUPTED view of the heavens, at least the part where the Sun isn't located (its instruments must eternally be in shadow of its sunshield in order to work properly, so it can't look at things at certain times that are TOO close to the Sun which would expose its instruments to solar light and heat. Later! OL J R: )

[@lukestrawwalker]

The Agena stages were only 5 feet in diameter at their widest point, and Titan was 10 feet in diameter. They also used completely different rocket engines. There may have been some common system components, of that I'm not sure, but Agena in no other way directly related to the Titan missile system. Modified Agena stages WERE used by NASA for various satellite launches, and in the Gemini space program where they served as docking target vehicles, since Agena was equipped with a stabilization system that allowed it to change its orientation in space (useful for space photography as in spy satellites) and a rocket engine propulsion system that allowed it to change orbits as needed (for as long as the propellant held out anyway). The Agena target vehicles had a checkered success with NASA's Gemini program, but the first docking in space was by Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott in Gemini 8 who docked to an Agena Target Vehicle previously launched into orbit ahead of them by an Atlas-Agena rocket. Several other dockings took place between Gemini spacecraft and Agena vehicles, some of which fired the Agena rocket engine to propel the Gemini spacecraft to record high altitudes above Earth, records of course soon broken by Apollo 8 and the subsequent lunar missions. Agena stages also launched some of the unmanned probes to the Moon as well. Titan also was NOT the main power in the US's ICBM fleet in the Cold War. Titan started out as a "backup" program to the Atlas missile development program in the mid-50's, as the US knew the Soviets were working on an ICBM (which the Soviets called "Semyorka" or R-7, which launched Sputnik and became the workhorse of their space program, launching Yuri Gagarin and subsequent spaceflights and which, though considerably modified, continues to this day as the "Soyuz launcher") Titan 1 used kerosene and oxygen propellants, which like Semyorka and Atlas, was highly undesirable for a military ballistic missile due to the fact that the liquid oxygen could not be stored in the missile and due to the fact that the super-cold liquid oxygen boiled off, the missile had to be constantly "topped up" with propellants awaiting launch, and the supply was finite so the missile could only remain fueled for immediate launch for a finite period of time before it had to "stand down". Realizing the disadvantages of this, subsequent Soviet and US missile efforts moved toward less efficient but room-temperature storable propellants, which as it turned out are highly poisonous, corrosive, and difficult to work with, and most ignite on contact with one another (hypergolic propellants) but which can be stored virtually indefinitely inside the missile's propellant tanks, allowing it to remain "on alert" in the silo for very long periods of time. Thus the Titan 2 was a highly modied version of the Titan missile, designed to use room temperature storable hypergolic liquid propellants. Of course in the meantime, the US work on a submarine-launched ballistic missile, Polaris, had switched to and perfected solid propellants, and realizing the advantages of this for an ICBM, the "Minuteman" missile was also designed and would be the mainstay of the US ICBM fleet for much of the Cold War, the first Minutemans became operational during the Cuban Missile Crisis in fact, and remain the backbone of the ICBM force to this day, with various modifications and improvements of course. Titan 2 did have the most powerful nuclear warhead ever put on a US missile, but after some fatal accidents and due to their high expense and aging airframes and infrastructure, the Titan 2's have all been retired decades ago. Later! OL J R : )

[@genusguy2724]

i haven’t watched this channel in sooooo long omg. excited for a little binge 😏

[@dirtydeeds4free553]

Its always how it goes

[@genusguy2724]

@@dirtydeeds4free553 fr 😂

[@shaukatmehmood2901]

🤔 How about this new variant as described in this short video ❓ kzbin.info/www/bejne/pXyqkoGgfNR3rpI

[@longingforsleep9578]

I SUGGESTED THIS TOPIC!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH SIMON AND TEAM I LOVE YOU!!!!!

[@sirswayze5288]

Great suggestion!

[@lukestrawwalker]

There's stories from the US photographic interpreters in the CIA and military where they revealed that the Soviets had basically figured out when spy satellites would be overflying their facilities... it's not that difficult if you know the time of the rocket launch, the altitude of the satellite, and the orbital parameters-- you can "work forwards" from the launch time using the orbital parameters to determine when the satellite will be overhead for any particular spot on Earth at any given time, where it will be in any point in space (the "ephemeris" as it's called). Soviet troops would often write vulgar or offensive insults for the Americans to read in the photographs by stomping large letters into the snow, showing that they knew exactly when the satellites would be overhead photographing their facility. Later! OL J R :)

[@pretzelhunt]

writing in the snow in Russia could last for months- it doesnt mean their stomping coordinated with the US flyovers, but they did "know" about the satellites above..

[@twentysevenlitres]

The Corona Satellites wouldn't have been in a Geostationary Orbit. They would have been placed in Polar Orbits (particularly at "675km" orbit height). Polar Orbits can cover the entire Earth's surface on successive orbits. Geostationary orbits, as the name implies, are essentially stationary above a fixed point on the Earth's surface, and are around 24,000km in orbital height. Geostationary Orbit is used for communications and weather satellites.

[@countdown8486]

These videos is the thing we need

[@user-kj8yl6sn2z]

You want a special topic? Make a comparison between the future Jeddah and developed Dubai and the advantages of both, especially after the new Jeddah projects such as the Downtown Jeddah project, the slum development project and the Jeddah Tower project after the Public Investment Fund acquired a large percentage of them. Jeddah and Dubai are the two most important economic cities in the Arabian Peninsula The idea revolves around a comparison between comparative advantages and aspects of competition between them, such as: 1. Airport 2. Sea port 3. City landmarks 4. Entertainment venues 5. Archaeological and heritage sites 6. Markets and malls 7. The comparative advantage of each city. 8. Museums 9.Infrastructure such as metro trains, pedestrian roads, etc. Does Jeddah have advantages that Dubai does not have that can be strengthened to compete with Dubai in tourism Economy? In my opinion, Jeddah's strong advantage now is two 1. It is the gateway to the Grand Mosque for those coming for Hajj and Umrah

[@nickhilbert9376]

I'm waiting for him to release a set of videos with all of them him saying “welcome to the Simonverse”.

[@samphillips4925]

A friend of mine had a father who worked on Corona. His wife thought he was having an affair because he would make mystious trips and would be vegue about where he was. She figured out he was working on something too secret when he didn't come home for days when the Cuban Missile crisis started.

[@timengineman2nd714]

Sorry, but the aircraft recovering the satellite film capsule is a Lockheed C-130, not a Boeing plane! The C-119 Flying Boxcars would have at least one jet engine added to them (if only 1, above the fuselage, if 2, one under each wing) to give them the speed and altitude to pick up the film capsules! (C-119 had a pair of R-4360, 28 cylinder radial engines (4,362 cubic inch/~71.49L(!)) Another secret, until recently, is the Echo Communication Satellites (Echo 1 & 2) which were basically a highly reflective metallic foil ballon in orbit where they would bounce a signal at high strength off of it from one station to the next. The CIA would also use the mirror like finish of the balloon's skin to take pictures of USSR & PRC sites they were interested in!!! Finally, the lesser known fact is that the U-2, just like the SR-71 would upon occasion have a flame-out (one reason why the SR-71 had 2 engines!), and to relight they had to come down to where the air was denser and therefor had more oxygen... This is how Powers was shot down!!!

[@andrewbreding593]

These channels alone produce more content with higher levels of accuracy and detail than History+ Discovery ever did.

[@Mrtee-ml8zf]

I like to think Simon made some kind of bet with himself to see how many channels he can manage.

[@americansmark]

That's funny. I take it you haven't seen the dumpster fire that is side projects lately....

[@andrewbreding593]

Nothing compared to the dumpster fire of Discovery Network... There's a lot of things from channels like this and others that I have learned did completely contradict everything I learned watching everything that was on those networks when I was a kid

[@andrewbreding593]

And then the absolute catastrophe of what they are now with ancient aliens vs. only thing redeemable is forged in fire

[@Mrtee-ml8zf]

@@americansmark I will be patiently waiting with bated breath in anticipation of your group of channels narrated by you and coordinating writers, editors, sponsors and viewers. The only way to see if your point is valid is to compare your work to the Fact Boi. I am positive you are going to show us the right way to do it. I personally cannot wait to share and subscribe to everyone one of your channels and videos. Maybe skill share be so kind as to bless us with your mastery of the art of teaching.

[@TheEvilCommenter]

Good video 👍

[@michaelblaszkiewicz7283]

The Florida keys are fantastic, you would love it Simon!

[@BlazeInjun]

I had to laugh at the notion that the soviets were just being good guys when they put sputnik in space. You know damn well they had the same idea to militarize space.

[@seanbrazell7095]

Both space programs were military based. The idea that the US militarized space just isn't accurate. Both did. The first man in space was a Russian SOLDIER. The implication that the US putting surveillance satellites in orbit was an irresponsible military act that made war more likely is unambiguously incorrect. That kind of surveillance is how nuclear war was AVOIDED, not irresponsibly made more likely. Fear and a lack of accurate, timely intellegence is how nuclear war happens. The more you know the less you fear. The less you fear, the less likely you are to make a catastrophic nuclear clusterfu*k of a mistake.

[@gordonlawrence1448]

Given your very first assertion is wrong why should we believe any of what you say? IE, and I quote: "The first man in space was a Russian SOLDIER", nope Uri Gagarin was in the Russian air force as a test pilot. Even Wiki gets that partly right.

[@seanbrazell7095]

@@gordonlawrence1448🤔 You do realize that a soldier is a soldier no matter the specific service he or she is in, right? Soldier isn't a rank. In the case of Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, his rank when he took that glorious first ride into history was that of Senior Lieutenant.

[@seanbrazell7095]

@@gordonlawrence1448 Though it occured well into the space race, the first and only firearm designed for and carried into orbit was a Soviet pistol. While it's entirely possible that the US did something similar at some point, it's never been disclosed. That is a different but similar militarization of space.

[@MrFlatage]

Did this 'soldier' ram his all caps like a child stomping it's feet? Or did he engage in space combat as you claim? Else all you have is a armchair general in zero G ...

[@lukestrawwalker]

Quite correct, with some quid pro quos... The Soviet space program and its military missile and spysat programs are indeed virtually indistinguishable, at least through the Soviet era... it wasn't until after the collapse of the Soviet Union that there was a more or less 'independent' Soviet space program (Roscosmos); before that there was really no organization remotely similar to NASA in the Soviet organizational structure overseeing Soviet space activities. In the United States, space activities were overseen by a range of military services and programs, most of them competing, and most of them distinctly proposing various concepts for space activities that definitely primarily served military purposes. Just read the Air Force's "Project Horizon" concept/proposal of the time, culminating in a 12 man moon base, not for exploration, but ultimately as a nuclear missile base. Of course it wildly underestimated the time, difficulty, and cost, but it's a metric that shows the thinking of the time. Eisenhower, however, was visionary that space exploration should be a peaceful endeavor and thus should be placed under the purview of a civilian agency, quite apart from the military. This was, of course, after the debacle of "flopnik" when the Navy's Vanguard rocket, the supposed "all-American" effort to answer Sputnik, failed spectacularly on the launch pad in front of the world press, and Von Braun's Army rocket development team was given the go-ahead to modify the Redstone-based "Jupiter-C" into an orbital launch vehicle for Explorer 1, the first US satellite (which subsequently discovered the Van Allen Radiation Belts surrounding Earth, using an instrument made by and the belts being named for Dr. James Van Allen, leading to the first true scientific discovery by a spacecraft. (Which points out another sloppy error in the video-- the Sputnik discovered nothing because it was merely a sphere enclosing a set of batteries and simple radio transmitting a beep-beep-beep; it had no scientific instruments aboard. Subsequent Sputniks would have various instruments for scientific study aboard, but Sputnik 1 was a "crash program" to beat the US into orbit, thus what WAS to be Sputnik 1 was pushed back on the schedule.) Eisenhower created NASA as an independent civilian space agency charged with overseeing all US space exploration activities (outside those specifically reserved to the military, such as satellite surveillance) in 1958. To be continued... OL J R :)

[@beachboy0505]

Excellent video 📹 Very technical 🙄 phew 😅

[@larrykstanley]

There is a little more to the program than presented here. The USAF mentioned to president Eisenhower prior to Sputnik’s launch that the USA had the ability to build a reconnaissance satellite. Eisenhower nixed the idea temporarily given the cost, Russian sensitivity to overflights, and the American U2 program already in existence. After Sputniks precedent setting flight in which the USSR had established that overflights were acceptable above the Karman Line the USAF’s proposal was given the green light. The speed with which Corona was developed owed much to design work earlier done. In truth the USAF could have beaten the USSR in launching the world’s first orbital artificial satellite.

[@JamesTTierce]

Do you actually believe this means anything whatsoever? its a factoid that is highly speculative regarding conversations that arent apart of any record. Its basically propaganda. The scary part is that you dont even realize it

[@taitano12]

16:00 Hey! It's the Seaduck!

[@markbaker9459]

Corona/ Seeds of .'Ice Station Zebra' , Howard Hughs favorite movie.

[@wesleychristensen1177]

I would love to see a video on the allies "bouncing bomb" in WWII

[@keithrosenberg5486]

Actually the US were made aware of the first Soviet nuclear detonation using dust capture.

[@jeremymissens7608]

Yeah the "surprise" attack lol 😂

[@curtgivens8943]

They absolutely are!

[@lundsweden]

Corona beer, horrible Toyota Corona car, horrible Corona virus, now we know there was also a Corona satellite! 🛰️

[@bbirda1287]

If the Corona name origin story is true, that is just freaking awesome the way history works. Reminds me of the Usual Suspects.

[@patrickbrumm4120]

suggestion for new episode: how did we come by all the symbols we use for money? How did the US $ sign come into being? The Pound?

[@lukestrawwalker]

Sputnik 2 contained the dog Laika, which perished in orbit due to poor temperature control of the spacecraft, and which had been launched with no heat shield because the Soviets had not developed a heat shield at that time, though they were working feverishly on developing one since they needed to protect their ICBM nuclear warheads from burning up reentering the atmosphere over their targets. Laika would have been poisoned in orbit as the oxygen and food supplies ran out, but the dog succumbed to heat prostration and died before then due to the insufficient air conditioning and insulation of the spacecraft from solar heating in orbit. Belka and Strelka were launched and recovered on Sputnik 5, also called *Korabl*-Sputnik 2, which was a completely different type of spacecraft from the typical Sputniks. The Korable-Sputniks were basically unmanned test versions of the same Vostok capsules that would be used to launch Yuri Gagarin as the first man in space. The same "Korabl-Sputniks" would serve as the USSR's first spy satellites, as camera systems were installed in them and flown over the US and NATO Allies, to photograph various targets of interest and then the entire camera system, housed inside the spherical heat-shielded pressurized capsule, would separate from the instrument module which provided the power and stabilization system during the mission, reenter over Soviet territory, and land within the Soviet Union. The Korabl-Sputniks were also equipped with time-delayed explosive charges designed to destroy the spacecraft after a certain amount of time had elapsed after landing, to presumably give the Soviets time to recover the spacecraft if it landed off-target or in a hard to access area, but short enough so that the spacecraft would self-destruct presumably before any foreign agents or spies were able to recover it if it landed accidentally elsewhere in the world. Later! OL J R :)

[@pamelamays4186]

Suggestion: Precision military flight teams, such as The Blue Angels.

[@rogerlevasseur397]

Later on the C-119s were replaced with C-130's. As a book on the project put it, the C-119 was a 2 engine plane flying over a 4 engine ocean.

[@trelard]

I've heard this program referenced in some circles as having a connection to the Dwarves program.

[@eaphantom9214]

Corona is Spanish for Crown, Befitting name for an advanced prototype! 🛰️

[@eaphantom9214]

@Tom Foster No need correcting me if that's what you intended, I was well aware corona could mean a number of things, that included 😅

[@beachboy0505]

6:57 Could have named it after a beer 🍺 🤔?

[@Zakster90]

You ready for this one? …I bet you can see the 7Mile bridge from up there 😁

[@wayneigoe6722]

So this was the thingy that they said was used to find Sgt. Woods in the Black Ops 2 campaign? "They found where I was being held with a spy satellite. One of them KH-9's... This baby shits out a film canister 12 miles up, then a C-130 comes by and *fffpt* snags it at about 30,000 feet." -Frank Woods, Call Of Duty Black Ops 2

[@lukestrawwalker]

12 miles up LOL:) goofy... more like 120. OL J R :)

[@raakbie3177]

Simon, when you said that the attack on Pearl Harbour launched America in to WW II, I thought of this question: When would America have joined in WW II if not for Pearl Harbour? They were already building up their army and their defences. Might this not be an interesting subject for a video?

[@wayneigoe6722]

No, if not for Pearl Harbor, the US would've largely ignored WWII. We mostly thought it best to let the other participants sort it out. Unless provoked, we weren't planning to get involved. We were building defenses, but that was to create jobs to help pull us out of the great depression.

[@jaybee9269]

Yes. They Nazis had already sunk an American destroyer, the “Reuben James” on October 31, 1941. There’s a Woodie Guthrie song about it.

[@bbirda1287]

There's a conspiracy theory that the FBI did know about Pearl Harbor before they attacked, but did nothing about it, specifically so they could use it as an excuse to enter the war. A diplomat supposedly delivered a message to the FBI office in New York City a while before the attack.

[@lukestrawwalker]

@@wayneigoe6722 True... don't forget the "arsenal of democracy" where the US was selling and "Lend-Lease" where we were basically loaning or giving aid to both Britain and Soviet Russia in their fight against Germany. Had the Japanese decided to take a "wait and see" approach to see if the US would join the war against them, who knows when or if the US would have joined the war... more a topic for an alternative history channel than this one I think. Later! OL J R :)

[@JamesTTierce]

@@lukestrawwalker We were selling stuff to germany as well.Germany made big ol submarines that were basically tankers. They bought chemicals and such like ink or more complex stuff.

[@markrenfrow9873]

Not to pick nits, but when you said "specially designed Boeing aircraft" you showed a Lockheed JC-130, of which I was a crewmember from '77-'81. In that time period I touched 2 satellites.

[@955safety]

Simon playing on those SEO and search traffic lol

[@carlobabad9312]

Cover some megaprojects from the philippines

[@lelonfurr1200]

Mr President we can't afford a mineshaft gap!

[@Flyingsidekickr]

What do you guys think about the purple streetlight? Are they really for satellite? Are they really worth the trouble (conspiracy to put them up where they are even in parking lots and gated neighborhoods sometimes but near evac points at night? Are for drones seeking them out in the air (UV light scatters in the atmosphere but from the air it might be useful even without direct line of sight)? What about mercury vapor lights and pretty much any light that is green on camera? What are they for? Why were mercury vapor lights banned/regulated in the US? Have you tried mapping such lights? My whole KZbin is about it basically.

[@user-cd4bx6uq1y]

1 day 42k 2.7k 154th. Have found this though the dyson sphere one last year. Since then kinda lost it and only found a video of this channel occasionally in my recommended. Lets see what came out of this channel.

[@paullobiando5007]

Can you give me the url of your Megaproject about John Harrison, the H1 through H5 chronometers, and the highly intractable problem of longitude? Because I can't seem to find it and I can't understand why. TIA!

[@sandybarnes887]

I dint believe it exists

[@MrPossumeyes]

You could check out Dava Sobel's book "Longitude". It's a good read. EDIT: oops, maybe you already have....

[@CyberspacedLoner]

Corona; Camping; Chair, Trailers, Beers and now also a surveillance programme

[@ryand2529]

It’s scary how little privacy we have nowadays. We don’t even think anything about it.

[@worstchoresmadesimple6259]

The Smith Corona Typewriter is a Mega Project. Think about it, Simon :)

[@wesselbonnet2561]

How about a video about the East African Railways in Kenya and Ethiopia/Djibouti that the Chinese are building?

[@martinstallard2742]

0:49 born out of imfamy 4:16 precursor 6:44 squarespace advert 8:30 development begins 11:13 the age of the satallite 14:01 the nuts and bolts 16:54 always there always watching

[@panzerfalcon550]

The pilot who flew the plane the forst time was actually my teacher's grandpa and the other day i actually got to hold a piece of the parachute

[@alexanderstone9463]

"I wouldn't want to be quoted on this...We've spent $35 or $40 billion on the space program. And if nothing else had come out of it except the knowledge that we gained from space photography, it would be worth ten times what the whole program has cost. Because tonight we know how many missiles the enemy has and, it turned out, our guesses were way off. We were doing things we didn't need to do. We were building things we didn't need to build. We were harboring fears we didn't need to harbor." President Lyndon Johnson in 1967

[@m1k3droid]

My father built the cameras for the Corona satellites at ITEK

[@williammann9176]

the cameras were designed by a team led by Dr. Edwin Land of Polaroid Corp.

[@m1k3droid]

@@williammann9176 False. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itek#Corona

[@cg9952]

i like your channel. Too bad that KZbin puts scam ads on it. like the Otto Insurance

[@pr0xZen]

That's why I always wear a tinfoil umbrella hat outside. Not letting the CIA sats sneak a peak on my phone when I'm posting scenic selfies on Facebook and Insta while out walking with my fitbit.

[@Petriefied0246]

This video is very interesting! My dad wrote articles on these and other satellites and came to the attention of the intelligence community, he thought it was hilarious because all of the information was in the public domain.

[@strabo1st]

2:40 LMAO!

[@SEAZNDragon]

You know, there's a Brain Blaze episode in the origins of project names.

[@jmanj3917]

*Yeah, OK,* Keep thinking that Sputnik had no military purpose behind it. And, on a completely unrelated note, NASA has never worked for the DoD, either...lolol

[@reggiep75]

Finally, Fact Boi gets his dome onto action on this after I said 'Spy Satellites, Fact Boi!?' long ago!

[@skyking6989]

So what are spy sattalites capable of now?

[@claritywindowcare8744]

Coroner and Agener sound like Dastardly Technology

[@pbandj37]

The lack of KH sequential numbered satellites is not surprising nor does it mean there are those missing numbered satellitles. It is not uncommon to number something and intentionally skip numbers to cause confusion....or to make you think those missing numbers are out there and wate your time looking for them. In high school, we may or may not have released three pigs into the school. The first pig had a number "1" painted on it, the second pig a number "2" and the third pig a number "4." The school spent multiple hours looking for a pig with a number "3" painted on it.

[@chlorineismyperfume]

Correct, and quite likely. I spent a few years, 20 years ago, sifting through decades of exploration diamond sample data trying to make sense of several generations of location maps. In an effort to prevent corporate espionage the original samples were labelled with a code with some numbers skipped, while another generation was deliberately plotted as a mirror image that sometimes ended up on another map entirely. So yeah, decoys are an effective method of creating confusion.

[@forensiceye-travelnews5905]

Good 😊 Forensic Eye 👁️

[@KewneRain]

How about something on Zircon?

[@mikefletcher7703]

In perfect Simon - World - What would have been the US response when the Soviets launched their satellite

[@sirswayze5288]

Can you do a video on the Astoria bridge in Oregon? It’s MASSIVE and I know Oregonians would absolutely love it!

[@user-kj8yl6sn2z]

A special project you didn't talk about Jeddah Tower, the tallest skyscraper in the world, and other Jeddah projects Do you think that the giant downtown Jeddah project will compete with Dubai soon He saw the military bases in one of the most important beach areas in the center of Jeddah and ordered to change its location and invest the site to be a huge investment project He saw many of the neighborhoods inhabited by the violating workers and their location is distinguished, so he ordered their demolition and planning to rebuild them again with a civilized and globally competitive planning Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s opinion is that the military bases are located in the most important investment areas in Jeddah and on the shores of the Red Sea. He found it an investment opportunity and demanded that the army leave their site to work on building a project in central Jeddah. Prince Al-Waleed was one of the princes who was imprisoned in the famous hotel and reached an agreement with the government that the Public Investment Fund would obtain a large stake in the Jeddah Tower project, which will be the tallest tower in the world There were many slums in Jeddah inhabited by illegal workers, so he ordered their demolition and work to build a new and civilized city that would compete with the most beautiful cities in the world.

[@JamesTTierce]

You mean the workers that became "illegal" after your princely prince or whatever stole their passports?

[@paulhimle]

They can read a date on a penny is what I’ve heard.

[@highlandoutsider8148]

2:41 😯......🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@paddyneill1964]

You say Corona...I say Lime please 😎

[@Odayian420]

I would of thought of beer. And then limes

[@spencerstevens2175]

Sputnik proved the USSR could put a nuke in space and deploy it. A mission for all mankind, my ass 🤣

[@1mrunforgetable]

I thought sputnik 2 had laika on board as per your sputnik video..

[@ChristOMalley]

Has peak Simon been reached ?

[@12799MaDeuce]

Tim Curry: SPACE!!!

[@Roger-uw1pj]

I wouldn't be surprised if Simon gets a visit from the CIA soon.. :D

[@rolfkarlstad4015]

"All around the world", he says, unironically. ;)

[@Richardincancale]

Did your script-writer really write ‘crapped in your cereal’ or was that a little ad lib?!!

[@thelegalliam]

I can confirm that that was in the script :)

[@Richardincancale]

@@thelegalliam Your script writer(s) are indeed talented!

[@buxeessingh2571]

Just pointing out that because the Soviet Union's ultimate goal was a "proletarian overthrow" of "imperialist powers" (short hand, as seen in Steve Jackson's card game _Illuminati_: the International Communist Conspiracy), it was prudent, albeit paranoid, to assume that Sputnik was more sophisticated than it actually was.

[@WTDoorley]

The uproar over Sputnik was not about the satellite itself but the capabilities it represented. If the Soviets had a rocket that could put even a small satellite into orbit, it was also possible that the same rocket could lob a nuclear warhead at the United States. The scientific results of Sputnik were minimal, as far as I know. The first American satellite, Explorer 1, discovered the Van Allen radiation belts and changed our understanding of the solar system . . . again.

[@lukestrawwalker]

Sputnik 1 was a polished ball with four antennas, with a pack of batteries and a simple radio transmitter going 'beep-beep-beep' inside, just to prove it was there and orbiting, basically, nothing more. It was a "crash program" to beat the US to the first satellite launch-- the Soviets knew the US was working on the Vanguard rocket and its satellite (which ultimately failed shortly after lifting off in the "Flopnik" or "Kaputnik" disaster in front of the world press). Korolev, who was the chief designer of the Soviet space program, had been working on a more advanced scientific instrumented space satellite, but Khruschev wanted something NOW so someone came up with the bright idea of a radio in a metallic ball just to get the propaganda victory, hence Sputnik 1. The next "propaganda first" was the first living organism in space, which led to them launching Laika the dog on Sputnik 2, which was hastily constructed to put a dog in orbit, despite them having NO way to recover her, she was doomed from liftoff. The more scientific Sputniks had to wait for later launches. OL J R :)

[@jamesmiddleton8128]

It's amazing an arms race got us to the moon...

[@tacinmesa]

Simon, Can you talk just a little bit faster? You are not quite unintelligible yet, but just a small boost in verbal velocity and you certainly will be. Love your content, hate that I can barely keep up with your legalese at the end of an advert speed talking.

[@AugmentedGravity]

Corona???

[@Mattgaines1]

I hate that this channel has sold out so much that I got 4 ads during this 20 minute video smh

[@JamesTTierce]

relax. You only care because youre broke(money wise that is....)

[@keithmoore5306]

OH planes ar unsuitable for recon use Simon? the SR 71 begs to differ!!!

[@simonm1447]

SR-71 has never overflown USSR territory. They just flew along the border to photograph inside the border region. Spy satellites can make photos of the whole country.

[@keithmoore5306]

@@simonm1447 oveerflights are not the focus of that statement as i took it!! that statement goes to usefulness in general! that planes were completely unsuitable anymore!! and the blackbird did have and did serve a purpose in recon that no satellite stood a chance of doing!! even today it take at least 24 hours (and up to 96 hours!!) to change an orbit and recalibrate it's sensors whereas a plane can be tasked and over target and taking very detailed pictures within 4 to 6 hours in most cases!!

[@simonm1447]

@@keithmoore5306 of course a satellite is less flexible since changes in its orbit are fuel consuming, limited and take time. It can only make a picture once a day from a certain spot on earth, at a certain time defined by its orbit. However, bigger countries (especially the US) have more than one satellite, and while the satellite can make a photo from a spot in the middle of Russia the SR-71 could not. The last overflight the US made over the USSR was the flight of Gary Powers, with the U-2.

[@keithmoore5306]

@@simonm1447 like i said the take i got from that statement was planes couldn't do recon anymore after powers got shot down! i wasn't talking about a specific target country just the plane in the role!

[@simonm1447]

@@keithmoore5306 I think we also have to see this from the point of view of 1960, when Gary Powers was shot down. The main interest for reconnaissance for the USA was the Soviet Union back then, and the SR-71 was not in service until the beginning of 1966. So there was a gap of 6 years, and the Corona satellite program started in the early 1960s. Another job for these satellites was to create a exact map of Russia, to know where the targets for ICBM had been. ICBM need exact target data, and official maps of Russia were inaccurate and partially deliberately wrong.

[@George-tz6nn]

Simon, I just looked up Your net worth... Fyi: I found you worth between $40.00 and $5.5 million... Very worth while Sir !!

[@gertballyhead]

corona..... What do i think of........beer

[@oceania68]

These days, all you need to do is login with your mobile and you have data 😄 Also, it should be worth noting that it is not only governments and their agencies that have satellites with "spying" capabilities... the private sector have their "fair share technological innovation", just saying. I marvel not only at the Leo's and Geo's (and the subsequent mess) but what they've got out in the parking bays.. 🧐