Spying from Space: Constructing America's Satellite Command and Control Systems

Centennial of Flight Series

by David Christopher Arnold

On August 14, 1960, a revolution quietly occurred in the reconnaissance capabilities of America. When the Air Force C-119 Flying Boxcar Pelican 9 caught a bucket returning from space with film from a satellite, the American intelligence community gained access to previously denied information about the Soviet Union. The Corona reconnaissance satellite missions that followed lifted the veil of secrecy from the communist bloc, revealing, among other things, that no “Missile Gap” existed.

This revolution in military intelligence could not have occurred without the development of the command and control systems that made the Space Race possible. In Spying from Space, David Christopher Arnold tells the story of how military officers and civilian contractors built the Air Force Satellite Control Facility (AFSCF) to support the National Reconnaissance Program. The AFSCF also had a unique relationship with the National Reconnaissance Office, a secret organization that the U.S. government officially concealed as late as the 1990s. Like every large technology system, the AFSCF evolved as a result of the interaction of human beings with technology and with each other.

Spying from Space fills a gap in space history by telling the story of the command and control systems that made rockets and satellites useful. Those interested in space flight or intelligence efforts will benefit from this revealing look into a little-known aspect of American achievement. Those fascinated by how large, complex organizations work will also find this an intriguing study of inter-service rivalries and clashes between military and civilian cultures.

Genres: Space, Nonfiction

232 pages, Paperback

First published December 7, 2004

About the author

Dr. David Christopher Arnold is Professor of National Security Strategy at National War College in Washington, DC. He is a career space and missile professional who retired from the U.S. Air Force in 2015 as a colonel. His first book, Spying from Space: Constructing America’s Satellite Command and Control Systems, was required reading for USAF strategists.

Reviews

[Matthew N]

David Christopher delivers an interesting history of the origins of satellite command and control, showing the evolution of the systems as a product of bureaucratic and political tug-of-war between jockeying agencies. Can sometimes feel dull powering through government jargon, but the summaries at the end of each chapter do well to keep the reader on track and capture the lessons of every stage of development.

[Roger Burk]

A middling account of an interesting and little-known story. Interesting to me, anyway--I served as an Air Force spacecraft operations director in the Air Force Satellite Control Facility in 1979-82. This book took me back to a previous life, and I learned some new things--like that the AFSCF was originally developed specifically for the Corona photoreconnaissance spacecraft in the early 1960s, when that program was totally covert. But the account here seems a bit thin. The growth of the AFSCF as a common command and control network for many satellites being attributed only to bureaucratic empire-building, with little attention to technical and operational reasons why a common network might suit some space systems and not others.

[David]

Wrote it!