Background

Corona was the name of a series of the U.S. military reconnaissance satellites operated under a CIA program run by the Directorate of Science & Technology with substantial assistance from the US Air Force, 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 an acronym.

The secret spy satellite was dubbed Corona by the CIA. To disguise its true purpose, it was given the cover name Discoverer and described as a scientific research program.

Document Archive

A Point In Time: The Corona Story Script, 25 June 1973 [54 Pages, 850k]
Watch the actual declassified video of A Point In Time: The Corona Story

Continue scrolling for more...

 A Tribute to the People of the Air Force Satellite Control Facility; The National Security Impact of Its Corona Satellites, April 2007 [ 30 Pages, 8.43 MB ]

 The Corona Story, December 1988 [182 Pages, 7.9MB]

 CORONA: America’s First Satellite Program, 1995 [362 Pages]

Discoverer/Corona General Briefing Portfolio – 22 January 1959 – Document received from the NRO.

Follow The Black Vault on Social Media:

This post was published on March 2, 2015 11:38 pm

John Greenewald

Recent Posts

FOIA Appeal Adds New Dog Bite Details from Biden White House, Confirms Video Evidence Withheld

Newly obtained Secret Service records continue to shed light on the numerous biting incidents involving…

September 26, 2025

DoD Redacts Nearly All Records Explaining AARO’s Use of Law Enforcement Exemption for UAP Files

The Department of Defense (DoD) has released a set of heavily redacted emails in response…

September 25, 2025

Pentagon Denies Existence of “Yankee Blue” Memo Reported by Wall Street Journal

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) response has raised new questions about a widely circulated…

September 16, 2025

DoD Says Aerospace Firms Went “On the Record” About UAP — Then Refuses to Acknowledge Records Exist

In March 2024, the Department of Defense (DoD) published publicly its Report on the Historical…

September 6, 2025

NASA Cites FOIA Exemption to Withhold James Webb Briefing Content Despite Public Hearing

In September 2024, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was filed with NASA seeking…

September 3, 2025

FBI Files: Historical Figures & Groups

Background Welcome to the FBI Files on Historical Figures & Groups archive at The Black…

August 31, 2025