Military satellite

This mission was a series of reconnaissance satellites, designed to enter orbit, take high-resolution photographs and then return the payload to Earth via parachute.

[2] Discoverer 1, the first mission, was launched on 28 February 1959 although it didn't carry a payload being intended as a test flight to prove the technology.

[3] Corona was followed by other programs including Canyon (seven launches between 1968 and 1977[4]), Aquacade[5] and Orion (stated by US Government sources to be extremely large[6]).

Following Salyut 5, the Soviet Ministry of Defence judged in 1978 that the time consumed by station maintenance outweighed the benefits relative to automatic reconnaissance satellites.

During the Cold War arms race, the nuclear threat was used to justify the cost of providing a more capable system.

The US Navy required precise navigation to enable submarines to get an accurate fix of their positions before they launched their SLBMs.

[14] A number of nations have developed satellite based early warning systems designed to detect ICBMs during different flight phases.

The project floundered due to the lack of any mechanism to protect the satellites from attack resulting in the cancellation of Defender in 1968.

Art.IV of the Outer Space Treaty specifically prohibits signatories from installing weapons of mass destruction in Earth orbit.

Signal latency is a major concern in satellite communications, so geographic and meteorological factors play an important role in choosing teleports.

[20] The system is provided by a private contractor, Astrium, with the UK government paying service charges based on bandwidth consumption.