Home > Spy satellite

The term "reconnaissance satellite" is preferred, as "spy satellite" often has has negative connotations.

In the United States, the most information is available on programs that existed up to 1972. Some information about programs prior to that time is still classified, and a small trickle of information is available on subsequent missions. A few up-to-date reconnaissance satellite images have been declassified on occasion, or leaked, as in the case of KH-11 photographs which were sent to Jane's Defence Weekly in 1985.

Examples of reconnaissance satellite missions:

• high resolution photography ( IMINT)
• communications eavesdropping ( SIGINTSIGINT stands for SIG nals INT elligence, which is intelligence-gathering by interception of signals, whether by radio interception or other means. It became far more central to military (and to some extent diplomatic) intelligence generally with the mech)
• covert communications ( HUMINTHUMINT short for human intelligence is an intelligence gathering discipline collecting information either by interviewing or tracking a subject of investigation, or by using a combination of 'black' techniques to gain confessions or involuntary disclosure)
• enforcement of nuclear test bans
• detection of missile launches

Types of spy satellites

• United States
  • LacrosseLacrosse and Onyx are the code names for a National Reconnaissance Office terrestrial radar imaging reconnaissance satellite. While not officially confirmed by the NRO, there is widespread evidence to confirm its existence. One example would be the non-cl

Key Hole (KH) series of imaging satellites:

Time period	Designation	Code name or Nickname	Optics	Notes
1959Events January-February January 1 Cultivars of plants named after this date must be named in a modern language, not in Latin. January 1 Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when forces of Fidel Castro advance January 2 CBS Radio cuts four soap operas: Bac– 1972	KH-1 to KH-4	CoronaCorona was the name of a series of US military reconnaissance satellites, used for photographic surveillance of the Soviet Union, China and other areas from June 1959 until May 1972. The project name is sometimes given as CORONA, but it is a codeword, not	Resolution: 7.5m, 2.75m, 1.8m Focal length: 0.6m	First known series of US spy satellites; photographs returned by film canister ejection.
1960Events January-February January 1 Independence of Cameroon January 9 Aswan High Dam construction begins in Egypt January 11 Chad declares its independence. January 14 Ralph Chubb, the gay poet and printer, dies at Fair Oak Cottage in Hampshire. January 23– 1962Events January January 1 Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand January 3 Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro January 4 New York City introduces a train that operates without a crew on-board January 8 Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is e	–	Samos	Res: 30 to 1.5m Foc len: 0.7 to 1.83m	Most flights used radio to relay images; some film returns; probably cancelled due to poor-quality imagery
1961– 1964	KH-5	Argon	Res: 140m Foc len: 76mm	Film return
1963	KH-6	Lanyard	Res: 1.8m Foc len: 1.67m	Shortlived operation for imaging a specific site; used a camera from the Samos program; film return
1963– 1967	KH-7	Gambit	Res: 0.46m	Film return
1966– 1984	KH-8	Gambit	Res: 0.5m	Film return
1971– 1986	KH-9	Hexagon Big Bird	Res: 0.30m	Film return
cancelled	KH-10	Dorian		Manned Orbiting Laboratory; space station based on Gemini program
1976– 1995	KH-11	Crystal Kennan	Res: 0.15m Mirror: 2.3m	First known digital imaging spy satellite.
1990?–present?	KH-12	Ikon Improved Crystal	Res: 0.15 to 0.10m? Mirror: 2.4 to 4m?	Digital imaging; possible "live" intelligence gathering
1999?–present?	KH-13	8X? EIS?	Res: 0.10? to 0.04m? Mirror: 4m?	Very little known; possibly includes radar imaging or maybe stealth technology

• Soviet Union
  • Cosmos
  • Vostok
  • Zenit
• United Kingdom
  • Zircon