Air Force Special Projects Production Facility
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Air Force Special Projects Production Facility
The Air Force Special Projects Production Facility was a top-secret facility operational at Westover Air Force Base from 1961 to 1976. It was responsible for developing film from Corona (satellite), the Corona satellite program and other film projects that were top secret. The facility was co-located with the 8th Reconnaissance Technical Squadron and developed the film used during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was also the primary production facility for the National Reconnaissance Program during this time. The facility was also in charge of the Controlled Range Network, which served to calibrate Corona (satellite), Corona, KH-7 Gambit, Gambit, and KH-9 Hexagon, Hexagon satellite programs. See also * List of military installations in Massachusetts References

{{Coord, 42, 12, 0.54, N, 72, 32, 46.53, W, display=title Installations of the United States Air Force in Massachusetts 1961 establishments in Massachusetts 1976 disestablishments in Massachusetts ...
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Postcard Of Westover Air Force Base, Chicopee Falls, Mass
A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin Card stock, cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as wood postcard, wooden postcards, copper postcards sold in the Copper Country of the U.S. state of Michigan, and coconut "postcards" from tropical islands. In some places, one can send a postcard for a lower fee than a letter (message), letter. Stamp collecting, Stamp collectors distinguish between postcards (which require a postage stamp) and postal cards (which have the postage pre-printed on them). While a postcard is usually printed and sold by a private company, individual or organization, a postal card is issued by the relevant List of postal entities, postal authority (often with pre-printed postage). Production of postcards blossomed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As an easy and quick way for individuals to commu ...
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Westover Air Force Base
Westover may refer to: People * Al Westover (born 1954), American professional basketball player in Australia * Arthur Westover (1864–1935), Canadian sport shooter and 1908 Olympian * Charles Westover (1934–1990), better known as Del Shannon, American musician and composer * Harry Clay Westover (1894–1983), United States federal judge * Oscar Westover (1883–1938), United States Army major general, fourth chief of the United States Army Air Corps * Russ Westover (1886–1966), American cartoonist * Tara Westover (born 1986), American memoirist, essayist, and historian * Theodorick Bland of Westover (1629–1671), Virginia politician, merchant, and planter * Winifred Westover (1899–1978), American film actress Places Localities in the United States *Westover, Alabama, a city *Westover, Stamford, Connecticut, a neighborhood in Stamford, Connecticut *Westover, Maryland, an unincorporated community *Westover, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Westover, New York, a h ...
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Corona (satellite)
The CORONA program was a series of American strategic reconnaissance satellites produced and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Directorate of Science & Technology with substantial assistance from the U.S. Air Force. The CORONA satellites were used for photographic surveillance of the Soviet Union (USSR), China, and other areas beginning in June 1959 and ending in May 1972. History In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite. Officially, Sputnik was launched to correspond with the International Geophysical Year, a solar period that the International Council of Scientific Unions declared would be ideal for the launching of artificial satellites to study Earth and the solar system. However, the launch led to public concern about the perceived technological gap between the West and the Soviet Union. The unanticipated success of the mission precipitated the Sputnik Crisis, and prompted President Dwight D. Eisenhower to auth ...
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Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis (of 1962) ( es, Crisis de Octubre) in Cuba, the Caribbean Crisis () in Russia, or the Missile Scare, was a 35-day (16 October – 20 November 1962) confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union, which escalated into an international crisis when American deployments of missiles in Italy and Turkey were matched by Soviet deployments of similar ballistic missiles in Cuba. Despite the short time frame, the Cuban Missile Crisis remains a defining moment in national security and nuclear war preparation. The confrontation is often considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war. In response to the presence of American Jupiter ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey, the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961, and Soviet fears of a Cuban drift towards China, Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev agreed to Cuba's request to place nuclear missiles on the island to deter a ...
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KH-7 Gambit
BYEMAN codenamed GAMBIT, the KH-7 (Air Force Program 206) was a reconnaissance satellite used by the United States from July 1963 to June 1967. Like the older CORONA system, it acquired imagery intelligence by taking photographs and returning the undeveloped film to earth. It achieved a typical ground-resolution of to . Though most of the imagery from the KH-7 satellites was declassified in 2002, details of the satellite program (and the satellite's construction) remained classified until 2011. In its summary report following the conclusion of the program, the National Reconnaissance Office concluded that the GAMBIT program was considered highly successful in that it produced the first high-resolution satellite photography, 69.4% of the images having a resolution under ; its record of successful launches, orbits, and recoveries far surpassed the records of earlier systems; and it advanced the state of the art to the point where follow-on larger systems could be developed an ...
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KH-9 Hexagon
KH-9 ( BYEMAN codename HEXAGON), commonly known as Big Bird or KeyHole-9, p.32 Big Bird was a series of photographic reconnaissance satellites launched by the United States between 1971 and 1986. Of twenty launch attempts by the National Reconnaissance Office, all but one were successful. Photographic film aboard the KH-9 was sent back to Earth in recoverable film return capsules for processing and interpretation. The highest ground resolution achieved by the main cameras of the satellite was . Another source says "images in the "better-than-one-foot" category" for the last "Gambit" missions. They are also officially known as the Broad Coverage Photo Reconnaissance satellites (Code 467), built by Lockheed Corporation for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The satellites were an important factor in determining Soviet military capabilities and in the acquisition of accurate intelligence for the formulation of U.S. national policy decisions as well as deployment of U.S. f ...
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Satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs). Most satellites also have a method of communication to ground stations, called Transponder (satellite communications), transponders. Many satellites use a Satellite bus, standardized bus to save cost and work, the most popular of which is small CubeSats. Similar satellites can work together as a group, forming Satellite constellation, constellations. Because of the high launch cost to space, satellites are designed to be as lightweight and robust as possible. Most communication satellites are radio Broadcast relay station, relay stations in orbit and carry dozens of transponders, each with a bandwidth of tens of megahertz. Satellites are placed from the surface to orbit by launch vehicles, high enough to ...
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National Reconnaissance Office
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is a member of the United States Intelligence Community and an agency of the United States Department of Defense which designs, builds, launches, and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the U.S. federal government, and provides satellite intelligence to several government agencies, particularly signals intelligence (SIGINT) to the NSA, imagery intelligence (IMINT) to the NGA, and measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT) to the DIA. NRO is considered, along with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), to be one of the "big five" U.S. intelligence agencies. The NRO is headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia, south of the Washington Dulles International Airport. The Director of the NRO reports to both the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of Defense. The NRO's federal workforce is a hybrid o ...
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List Of Military Installations In Massachusetts
This is a list of current and former military installations in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Current military installations in Massachusetts Joint facilities ;Bases * Joint Base Cape Cod (state designation, not federally recognized)USCG Air Station Cape Cod
Official Site
;Centers * David S. Connolly Armed Forces Reserve Center *
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Installations Of The United States Air Force In Massachusetts
Installation may refer to: * Installation (computer programs) * Installation, work of installation art * Installation, military base * Installation, into an office, especially a religious (Installation (Christianity) Installation is a Christian liturgical act that formally inducts an incumbent into a new role at a particular place such as a cathedral. The term arises from the act of symbolically leading the incumbent to their stall or throne within the cathedra ...
) or political one {{disambig ...
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1961 Establishments In Massachusetts
Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 (Koivulahti air disaster): Douglas DC-3C OH-LCC of Finnish airline Aero crashes near Kvevlax (Koivulahti), on approach to Vaasa Airport in Finland, killing all 25 on board, due to pilot error: an investigation finds that the captain and first officer were both exhausted for lack of sleep, and had consumed excessive amounts of alcohol at the time of the crash. It remains the deadliest air disaster to occur in the country. * January 5 ** Italian sculptor Alfredo Fioravanti marches into the U.S. Consulate in Rome, and confesses that he was part of the team that forged the Etruscan terracotta warriors in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ** After the 1960 military coup, General Cemal Gürsel forms the new government of Turkey (25th government). * ...
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