The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) describes the Project UPWARD as the following: In August 2014, the NRO released declassified Project UPWARD records from their archives. Project UPWARD was a joint project that began in 1964, when the NRO and NASA signed an agreement to transfer optical technology from the NRO to NASA. UPWARD was initiated as a low orbit, high resolution contingency program, should NASA’s primary effort to certify lunar landing sites fail. The primary NASA lunar landing certification effort consisted of a high orbit camera program called Lunar Orbiter and a landing vehicle program called Surveyor. Since NASA’s programs…
Author: John Greenewald
Excerpt What GAO Found The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) made progress in implementing information security controls; however, weaknesses in the controls limited their effectiveness in protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of financial and sensitive taxpayer data. During fiscal year 2015, IRS continued to devote attention to securing its information systems that process sensitive taxpayer and financial information. Key among its actions were further restricting access privileges on key financial applications and continuing its migration to multifactor authentication across the agency. However, significant control deficiencies remained. For example, the agency had not always (1) implemented controls for identifying and authenticating…
Background on the B-21 On February 26, 2016, the United States Air Force announced the “next generation” bomber, the B-21. Although not much is known, they did issue a press release: Air Force reveals B-21 Long Range Strike Bomber WASHINGTON (AFNS) — Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James revealed the first rendering of the Long Range Strike Bomber, designated the B-21, at the Air Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium Feb. 26 in Orlando, Fla., and announced the Air Force will be taking suggestions from Airmen to help decide the name of the bomber. “This aircraft represents the future for our…
Background This sampling of newly released saucer-type aircraft documents contain detailed technical data and drawings related to the work undertaken by AVRO Aircraft Limited for the Air Force under Project 1794. Project 1794 was interested in designing and testing a proposed supersonic vertical take-off and landing saucer type aircraft in 1957-58. The Air Force Declassification Office declassified these documents in June 2001 and the National Declassification Center, National Archives, just recently approved them for public release. Below are direct links to four documents. Declassified Documents Project Planning Report Project 1794, February 1957 [124 Pages, 22.6MB ] Project Planning Report Project…
Background The Apollo program was a human spaceflight program undertaken by NASA during the years 1961-1975 with the goal of conducting manned moon landing missions. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced a goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade. It was accomplished on July 20, 1969 by the landing of astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, with Michael Collins orbiting above during the Apollo 11 mission. Five other Apollo missions also landed astronauts on the Moon, the last one in 1972. Document Archive Apollo Experience Report – Protection Against Radiation, March 1973 [19…