This photo, of the Soviet Union’s Dolon Air Field in August
1966, shows more detail, including the location of heavy
bombers–a very important detail at the height of the Cold War.
When President Eisenhower approved the program in 1958, and
throughout its 12-year run, information on military and
aerospace efforts in the Soviet Bloc was very hard to come by,
and the satellite’s eye in the sky helped the U.S. to peak
behind the (iron) curtain. Corona, actually the name of a series
of satellites used in the program, was a joint effort of the
Defense Department and the Central Intelligence Agency.
According to the NRO Web site, the resolution of Corona’s images
was 6 feet at its sharpest, 560 feet at its worst. Individual
satellite images covered a land are of approximately 10 miles by
120 miles.