Satellites Used To Spy On China

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31163, 13 September 1966, Page 17

Satellites Used To Spy On China

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright) CAPE KENNEDY, Sept. 12. The Chinese mainland has become the focus for fully half of America’s “spy in the sky” satellite activity, informed military sources said today. Even more space pictures are obtained of Chinese areas than strategic areas in the Soviet Union.

According to sources, American space reconnaissance took a big jump forward on July 29 with the launching of a new type of spy satellite. This improved model is said to be able to vary its orbital height to swoop down low over a photographic target of high interest and then move back to its earlier altitude for wider-range shots. Sources say radio listening devices are also aboard. The United States satellite surveillance programme was first announced in 1961 and called the “Samos” project. Security precautions were clamped down after the brief statement, and even the name “Samos” is now classified. Deny Existence Air Force officers in charge of the project look blankly when asked about Samos and and deny that American spy satellites exist However they boast privately of their belief in America’s superiority over the Soviet Union in the field. Both the United States and Russia launch a couple of the spy satellites a month. Because of the low altitude needed for good pictures, they work only about eight days before burning up in a plunge through the atmosphere. When President Kennedy met the former Soviet Premier, Mr Khrushchev, in Vienna in 1962, the Russian leader spoke proudly of his country’s spy satellites and jokingly offered to exchange pictures with the United States.

American Samos satellites have been launched for years by Atlas-Agena rockets. The Agena is a variation of the one which acts as a rendezvous and docking target on Gemini spaceflights. The early Samos satellites were made up of Arenas with camera systems poking from one end. The camera systems, which could take both close-up and wide-angle pictures simultaneously, were similar to those used on the lunar Orbiter moon probe last month.