thumb|[[STS-36 launch for Space Shuttle Atlantis, which deployed assets from the Misty satellite program under Zirconic]]

Zirconic was a National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) codename for a program established under the Presidency of Ronald Reagan to develop reconnaissance satellites equipped with stealth technology. Zirconic operated as a sensitive compartmented information program and included the Misty spacecraft, designed to reduce radar, visible, infrared, and laser signatures. Access to related classified material required a dedicated "Zirconic clearance", and the program's development effort was internally codenamed Nebula.

Misty deployments began in 1990, when Misty 1 launched aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis and was deployed over the side rather than through a conventional payload bay ejection; amateur observers nevertheless tracked it within months. Misty 2 followed in 1999 on a Titan IV-B rocket, during which observers noted the release of a high-altitude decoy intended to obscure the true payload's orbit.

By the early 2000s, Zirconic had become one of the largest single line items in the U.S. intelligence budget, with Misty's development costs rising from US$5 billion to more than US$9 billion by 2004. The program drew scrutiny from the numerous United States Congress committees over the effectiveness of the program. Critics argued that extreme secrecy enabled unchecked spending and limited transparency. Supporters maintained that stealth capability provided unique intelligence advantages in situations where adversaries believed no satellites were overhead.

Background

Early in the Cold War, the United States (U.S.) attempted to monitor the Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal build-up. Particular concerns were the production numbers, deployment site locations, and missile capabilities. Initially, the U.S. used U-2 spy planes taking pictures on the ground for later analysis. However, the Soviets developed countermeasures and on May 1, 1960, a U-2 plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile with its pilot, Francis Gary Powers, being captured. The U-2 incident ended the flights over the Soviet Union.

Around the same time, the U.S. was developing a satellite program, named CORONA, that eventually replaced the U-2 program and extended the list of targeted countries, such as China and Cuba. The first test took place on February 28, 1959, in Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. After several attempts, on August 18, 1960, the first successful satellite overflew the Soviet Union seven times and the satellite's film-return capsule was ejected and picked up near Hawaii. The CORONA satellites were replaced by the improved KH-8 Gambit 3 satellites, which operated from 1963 until 1984. The NRO considered stealth reconnaissance satellites as early as 1963; at the time, this was based on the assumption of continuing data collection efforts even if challenged by "an intense Soviet effort" to limit orbital photography coverage of their assets.

Sources

Further reading

  • Stealth Satellite Sourcebook, Federation of American Scientists.