by Ronald P.
In March 1958, I
started working for Lockheed, in Sunnyvale, on the first Polaris missile
program. I worked on a checkout system to be installed on the first ballistic
missile submarine, the USS George Washington. I designed a single console to
house a tape drive that would check out each missile before launch. This was
done because the original planned checkout system (ACRE) was cancelled.
When I was
transferred to Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, I was eventually assigned
to the, since declassified, Corona project. Corona satellites were used for
photographic surveillance and were designed to be caught by C-130 aircraft over
the Pacific.
The first
series of photos were not captured, and I was asked to design the package that
told the system engineers why they lost the recovery packages. The program
continued for over 12 years.
