POPPY is the code name given to a series of U.S. intelligence satellites operated by the National Reconnaissance Office. The POPPY satellites recorded ELINT data, targeting radar installations in the Soviet Union and Soviet naval ships at sea.

The POPPY program was a continuation within NRO’s Program C of the Naval Research Laboratory’s Galactic Radiation and Background (GRAB) ELINT program, also known as Tattletale. The National Security Agency was given the responsibility of collecting, interpreting, and reporting the signals intercepted.

The existence of the POPPY program was declassified by the NRO in September 2005, although most of the details about its capabilities and operation are still classified. The NRO revealed, though, that the POPPY satellites, like other US SIGINT systems, used the principle of signals time difference of arrival, which enables precise locating of an object.[1] All POPPY launches orbited multiple satellites. The first POPPY launch included two satellites, launch #2 and #3 three satellites each, and subsequent launches orbited four satellites each. The full configuration thus employed four vehicles in low Earth orbit.

There were seven launches of POPPY satellites from Vandenberg Air Force Base from 1962 until 1971, all of which were successful. The program continued until August 1977.

Declassified Documents

The Poppy Satellite – First Launch [100 Pages] – All documents released from the National Reconnaissance Office, as of 14 August 2006.

The History of the Poppy Satellite System

Abstract: This report describes the history of the Poppy project from its concept in 1958 through its termination on 30 September 1977. This history was compiled at the request of the Director National Reconnaissance Office to the Director, Program C.

Included in this report are the significant events during the nineteen years of the Poppy project, including the development and refinement of POPPY satellites,
mission ground stations, ground readout equipment; analog analysis, and data processing. The impact of failures, problems and anomalies are evaluated. Successes of the Poppy project are measured against program objectives. Technical cost history, key contributions, a glossary of terms related to the POPPY project, and a bibliography are contained in annexes to the report.

Each of the chapters in the report is intended to be somewhat self-contained. Annex i contains a summary of mission characteristics and merges some information from the third throughout the seventh chapters in order to provide a chronological summary of the technological innovations in the order of the launches.

The History of the Poppy Satellite System, 2019 Release (Highlighted Portions of NEW Information) [98 Pages, 32MB] – In January of 2019, I requested a Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) of this document. Previously, the last release of it was in 2016. I was successful in getting the NRO to release additional portions of the report, that have never been released before. This included project names, mission numbers and key technical data. I archived the 2012 and 2016 versions below, for reference.

The History of the Poppy Satellite System, 2016 Release [98 Pages, 9.5MB] – In October of 2016, I requested a Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) of this document. Previously, the last release of it was in 2012. I was successful in getting the NRO to release additional portions of the report, that have never been released before. I archived the 2012 version below, for reference.

The History of the Poppy Satellite System, 2012 Release [97 Pages, 2.5MB]

Raising the Periscope… GRAB and POPPY: America’s Early ELINT Satellites [27 Pages, 1.5MB] – We offer in this publication a brief history of Grab and Poppy—two of the earliest U.S. satellite-based electronic intelligence (ELINT) programs. Our brief history represents the scope of programmatic details that former Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet authorized the Director of National Reconnaissance to declassify.1 Our goal was to produce a consolidated summary of these programs on the occasion of DNRO Donald Kerr’s recognition of key contributors to the Poppy program.2 Although security constraints limit how much we can say about these programs, we present an overview and summary of Poppy’s early contributions to national security. Such information can provide current NRO program managers with an unclassified historical context for programmatic and policy decisions.

The post Poppy Satellite first appeared on The Black Vault.

Special thanks to Gunter’s Space Page for this description of GeoLITE:

GeoLITE (Geosynchronous Lightweight Technology Experiment) is an advanced, experimental communications satellite featuring Laser and UHF communication devices. It is operated by the NRO.

GeoLITE is the first mission for TRW’s T-310 satellite bus, a new lightweight, highly stable platform capable of a range of missions. TRW has system integration responsibility for GeoLITE, including the satellite development, integration and preparation for launch.

The lsser communications experiments consisted of:

• the GeoLITE Laster Terminal (GLT) to provide the NRO with information concerning high data rate geosynchronous orbit to ground communications in varying atmospheric conditons. It provided data to refine models and systems to reduce costs, riskas and schedule for future operational lasercom systems.
• the GLOM radiometer payload to measure the intensity fluctuations and polaization of the laser beams transmitted from Earth to the GeoLITE satellite

The UHF payload was part of the IBS-S (Integrated Broadcast Service – Simplex) inteligence data dissemination architecture to replace the older military satellite communications (MILSATCOM) archtecture. Other IPS-S payloads were flown on different missions to provide geostationary and polar coverage.

The satellite was designed and built in 3 1/2 years using streamlined program methodologies.

The below document was referenced in the Intellipedia Entry for  GeoLITE. After more than a year, I was able to get the document declassified, and it is now available here, for reference.

Declassified Documents

 Flight Ops GeoLITE Training, May 2009 (Declassified May 2017) [132 Pages, 9.9MB]

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The post Flight Ops GeoLITE Training, May 2009 (Declassified May 2017) first appeared on The Black Vault.

Below are the declassified volumes made available through the FOIA.  The remaining volumes are under review for declassification and release.

 The History of Satellite Reconnaissance, Volume 1 [241 Pages, 9.3mb]

 The History of Satellite Reconnaissance, Volume 2A [326 Pages, 9.7mb]

 The History of Satellite Reconnaissance, Volume 2B [182 Pages, 5.59mb]

 The History of Satellite Reconnaissance, Volume 3A [338 Pages, 5.15mb]

 The History of Satellite Reconnaissance, Volume 3B [153 Pages, 3.4mb]

 The History of Satellite Reconnaissance, Volume 4 – NRO History [134 Pages, 5.25mb]

 The History of Satellite Reconnaissance, Volume 5 [218 Pages, 8.6mb]

The post History of Satellite Reconnaissance first appeared on The Black Vault.

The Trieste II (DSV-1), the Navy’s most advanced deep sea submersible at the time, surfaced about 350 miles north of the Hawaiian Islands in the pre-dawn hours of 26 April 1972 after recovering a mysterious item. Publicly called a “data package,” the object was actually part of a U.S. spy satellite, codenamed HEXAGON. Before today’s digital technology, photoreconnaissance satellites used film, which returned to Earth in capsules ejected from the satellite. The capsules, called “buckets,” reentered Earth’s atmosphere and deployed a parachute to slow their descent. During the first HEXAGON mission in 1971, the parachute broke off causing the bucket to crash into the ocean. This release includes photos of the capsule on the ocean floor, pictures of the Trieste II (DSV-1), and an article recounting the deepest undersea salvage then attempted. We also linked to the Naval Undersea Museum, where the Trieste II (DSV-1) is on permanent display.

An Underwater Ice Station Zebra: Recovering a Secret Spy Satellite Capsule from Booklet cover of Underwater Ice Station Zebra16,400 Feet below the Pacific Ocean [36 Pages, 6.21mb]

Declassified CIA Documents

1971-07-10 – Cable 2969

1971-07-11 – Cable 2972

1971-07-11a – Cable 2987

1971-07-12 – Cable 1311

1971-07-27 – Cable 3260

1971-07-28 – RV-3 Recovery Planning Meeting

1971-08-04 – Cable 9097 Recovery of RV-3

1971-08-05 – Effect of Salt Water on Beryllium

1971-08-05a – Penetration of the RV into the Ocean Bottom

1971-08-10 – Deep Sea Recovery of Hexagon Reentry Vehicle

1971-08-13 – Cable 1527 RV-3 Impact Point

1971-08-18 – Deep Sea Recovery of Hexagon Reentry Vehicle

1971-08-23 – Cable 4960

1971-09-01 – Perkin-Elmer Proposal for Recovery of RV3 of SV-1

1971-09-08 – Cable 8164

1971-09-13 – Cable 3709

1971-09-14 – Status of Recovery Effort as of 14Sep71

1971-09-16 – Cable 2150

1971-09-17 – Cable 1223

1971-10-07 – Cable 2266

1971-10-28 – Cable 5446

1971-10-28a – Cable 2338

1971-11-18 – Cable 26767

1971-12-10 – 1201 RV-3 Recovery

1972-01-12 – Notes on Conversation of 11 Jan 72

1972-01-13 – Cable 8209

1972-01-31 – Trip Report Recovery of RV3

1972-02-02 – Prognosis for RV-3 Recovery Operations

1972-02-03 – Prognosis for RV-3 Recovery Operations

1972-02-14 – Status of RV-3 Recovery Operations

1972-03-15 – Recovery Operations RV-3 of SV-1

1972-03-29 – Recovery Operations RV-3 of SV-1

1972-04-20 – Cable 2193

1972-04-27 – Cable 1097

1972-05-02 – Cable 3009

1972-05-24 – Deep Sea Recovery of Hexagon Recovery Vehicle 1201-3 With Four Attachments

1972-07-28 – Report on the Analyses of Recovered 1201-3 Film Samples

Declassified NRO Documents

All NRO documents declassified on this subject [138 Pages, 5.97mb]

The post Recovering a Secret Spy Satellite Capsule from Underwater Ice Station Zebra – 16,400 Feet below first appeared on The Black Vault.

The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance [390 Pages]

A History of the Military Polar Orbiting Meteorological Satellite Program, September 2001 [56 Pages, 4.41MB] – In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, a director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) authorized the construction and launch of a small meteorological satellite to support CORONA and other film-limited imaging satellite systems. Though undertaken as an “interim” measure while awaiting completion and launch of a national weather satellite, in the months that followed the NRO spacecraft would incorporate so many desirable features and perform so admirably that it became the template adopted for all American civil and military low altitude meteorological satellites. I researched and wrote the first installment of this history, which covered these actions and events, using available classified records while assigned temporarily to NRO headquarters in the mid 1980s. After returning to the NRO as its historian in the late 1990s, and upon declassitlcation of the original work and endnotes in February 2000, I shared it with the early program participants and completed the story through the turn of the Millennium and the consolidation of American military and civil meteorological satellite programs into a National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS).

Satellite Reconnaissance [24 Pages]

Utility of A Satellite Vehicle For Reconnaissance [140 Pages]

Venezula Capsule Crash, 1964. Mission 1005 [50 Pages]

The post Miscellaneous Records on Spy Satellites first appeared on The Black Vault.