https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2015-featured-story-archive/corona-declassified.html
Twenty years ago this month, the world learned about the existence of the first imaging reconnaissance satellite, codenamed CORONA.
It’s hard to imagine a world without Google maps or satellite imagery, but when CORONA was developed in the 1950s, satellite photo-reconnaissance didn’t exist.
CORONA was created by a small group of CIA, Air Force and private industry experts who were tasked with finding a way to provide broad imagery coverage of the USSR to identify missile launch sites and production facilities.>>2805865