REVISED DRAFT: 156 COMMITTEE REPORT ON SKYLAB EARTH TERRAIN CAMERA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP76B00734R000100280005-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 19
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 18, 2007
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: April 6, 1973
• Content Type: MF

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State Dept. review completed
NRO review(s) completed.
NASA Review Completed.
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
IR 1973
opy
SUBJECT: Revised Draft: 156 Committee Report on Skylab Earth
Terrain Camera
The attached memorandum from State (Tab A) asks your concurrence to
a revised draft of the 156 Committee report on the Skylab camera operations.
This draft, together with the transmittal letter that will eventually forward
the report to the 40 Committee, will accommodate all the recommendations
that were made in your memorandum of 13 March 1973 (Tab B).
One of your recommendations was to "begin a study now to establish
some guidelines which can be followed in this screening process /of
politically sensitive photographer/ and to determine alternative ways of
handling the acquired photography with a view toward minimizing the risk of
unfavorable international reaction." This draft accepts your proposal and
in addition recommends that a representative of the DCI organize and chair
a task force to do this study.
We recommend that you concur in this memorandum. COMIREX has taken
the lead in screening previous Apollo pictures and is prepared to
take on the job of supervising the post-launch screening process from
Skylab. It also appears reasonable for him to be your representative to
chair a pre-launch task force to elaborate the procedures to be used for
screening by the post-launch screening group and to establish the detailed
criteria to be applied.
Assistant Deputy Diree%o
for
Science and Technology
CONCURRENCE:
S APR 1973
Deputy a ULI or e Intelligence Community
a
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SUBJECT: Revised Draft: 156 Committee Report on Skylab Earth
Terrain Camera
V APPROVED: Concur in the revised draft as it stands.
DISAPPROVED: Concur in the draft except for designation of DCI
to organize the pre-launch screening task force.
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2 April 1973
MEMORANDUM FOR: DOD - Mr. Dwayne Anderson
CIA - Mr. Donald Steininger/
NASA - Mr. David Williamson
ACDA - Mr. Richard L. Durham
NSC - Mr. David Elliott
FROM : State - H. G. Handyside
SUBJECT . Revised Version: 156 Committee Report on SKYLAB Earth
Terrain Camera
A revised version of the 156 Committee Report on the SKYLAB Earth
Terrain Camera is attached for review and concurrence. The revised draft
reflects the comments and suggestions made by your agencies on the initial
draft of the Report.
Several members of the 156 Committee expressed concern about the
lack of a precisely defined post-launch screening organization and about
the vagueness of the screening criteria. CIA explicity recommended the
elaboration of detailed screening criteria and proposed specific language
to this end. The CIA recommendation, broadened somewhat to include
suggestions from others, has been incorporated in the text on page 9
and has been reflected in the Recommendation section by the addition of a
second formal recommendation on page 2.
The text of the Report has been revised at various points (through
phrase changes, deletions, and the addition of new material) to reflect
the somewhat less sanguine outlook of several Committee members about the
growing international concerns about remote sensing via satellite and the
sensitivities/opposition which has been voiced by some representatives in
the UN Remote Sensing Working Group about the legal and proprietary issues
which this technology raises. The existence and the importance of legal
and economic "sensitivities", for example, has been explicitly addressed
in the revised draft.
CIA also recommended the mounting of a broad scale study of U. S.
Policy on remote sensing of other sovereign nations, with particular
emphasis on the economic/commercial value of data obtained in this fashion
and specifically, the commercial value of such data to U.S. companies and
industries. The critical need for such a study has been underscored in
E:i_ _U GI :ndys i d -~-
TOP SECRET
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
%
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other forums (most recently in the NSSM-72 Space Cooperation interagency
working group). Since the expertise required is located in NASA, Interior,
Agriculture, etc., renewed effo;-ts to get one or more of those agencies
to produce the desired study may be in order. To this end, State would
propose to emphasize the need for a study of this sort by recording CIA's
first recommendation in whatever transmittal memorandum is eventually
drafted to forward the 156 Committee Report to the 40 Committee.
Given the time-frame that confronts us, I would very much appreciate
receiving your clearance of the revised draft Report by c.o..b. Friday,
April 6. A "go" phone call before then would be most welcome. If you have
extensive comments or suggestions, perhaps we could arrange a face-to-face
session in order to speed up the resolution process.
cc: NRO -
40 Commi ee xecu ive secretary,
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REVISED DRAFT
NSAM 156 Committee
SKYLAB
Photographic Flight Plans for Earth Terrain Camera
The Problem:
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has requested
authorization to employ on the SKYLAB orbiting laboratory an Earth Terrain
Camera having a ground resolution of between 10 and 20 meters. The resolu-
tion of this camera exceeds the 20-meter constraint recommended in 1966 for
unclassified space programs.
In September 1971, the NSAM 156 Committee recommended to Dr. Henry A.
Kissinger that NASA be authorized to employ -- and to release photographs
acquired by -- the high resolution Earth Terrain Camera (ETC) subject to
certain procedural safeguards, The safeguards agreed upon by the Committee
were:
(a) Prior-launch screening of flight plans to preclude
photography-of "sensitive areas";
(b) Final review by the 40 Committee of photographic flight
planning in light of international factors existing immediately prior
to launch;
(c) Post-launch screening of potentially sensitive photography
acquired by the high resolul-ion camera to prevent the release of any imagery
that would be damaging to U.S. interests or would embarrass the United States
)~ CLaSS;''rJ ;a. _ HGHandys ide
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in any way.
Dr. Kissinger subsequently approved the 156 Committee recommenda -
The launch date for SKYLAB-I has now been set for May 14. The
requirement to make final mission planning decisions in the next few weeks
imposes the need to make a final determination as soon as possible on the
detailed utilization of the Earth Terrain Camera.
Recommendation:
The detailed photographic flight plans covering the utilization of
the high resolution Earth Terrain Camera proposed by NASA should be approved,
subject to a final review by the 40 Committee immediately prior to launch,
and with the understanding that any photography acquired will be screened
prior to public release.
At the same time, action should be taken now to organize the SKYLAB
screening task force and to elaborate the procedures to be followed by this
group and the detailed criteria to be applied. It is therefore recommended
that the 40 Committee request the Director of Central Intelligence to under-
take this task on a priority basis, in cooperation with NASA and the otheILLEGIB
agencies which have a direct interest in the broader political and economic
Only sixty-five of the over two thousand manned orbits SKYLAB will ILLEGIB
make during The entire eight month mission are dedicated to earth observa-
tion. The Earth Terrain Camera will be employed during a maximum of fifty 25X1
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of these earth-oriented orbits. (In fact, a more realistic figure would
be forty orbits.) Before each planned earth observation pass, Mission
Control will decide, in the near real time, on the basis of weather
conditions and the number of investigation sites which can be covered
whether or not to execute the pass. If a planned pass is cancelled because
of bad weather, an attempt will be made to obtain the desired photography
either during the pass over the identical track five days later or to obtain
photography of the investigation sites involved on an alternate pass. The
Earth Terrain Camera will take approximately 7,000 pictures. On 50% of
them, 20 meter color-infrared film will be used; on 25%, 15 meter class
color film; and on 25%, 10 meter class B & W film.
Appropriate Soviet scientists and space officials were briefed on
SKYLAB in 1971. In carrying out this 156 Committee recommendation in
Moscow, NASA described both the mission and the equipment of the orbiting
manned laboratory, including the characertistics of the ETC. The USSR
was offered the opportunity to participate in both the Earth Resources
Technology Satellite (ERTS) and the Earth Resources Experimental Package
(EREP) programs. Although the USSR has made no direct response to this
U.S. initiative, it has arranged to purchase ERTS data and, as an outgrowth
of the Moscow Summit, is participating with the United States in the joint
remote sensing of the natural environment program.
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The final, prior-to-public release screening of any potentially
sensitive photography will be carried out through the USIB COMIREX (U.S.
Intelligence Board Committee on Imagery Requirements and Exploitation)
mechanism in accordance with the procedures and on the basis of the specific
criteria established by the intelligence community. The representatives of
NPIC, CIA, DIA, State, and other interested agencies will examine in
particular the photography of "sensitive areas" which may be acquired by
the, Earth Terrain Camera as the result of premature start-up or delayed
shutdown. They will also examine in detail any photography which may be
inadvertently acquired of the Soviet Union or the Peoples Republic of China.
In screening the photography falling in these and any other potentially
sensitive categories, the reviewers will be looking particularly for any
coverage of military installations or of military-type targets.
The overall reaction to the flight of ERTS-I has been generally
positive. Although a few nations expressed reservations about the surveying
of earth resources by satellite and others have pressed for detailed considera-
tion in the various space organs of the United Nations of the political and
legal as well as the technical issues raised by remote sensing by satellite,
thirty-eight nations and two international agencies have participated in the
ERTS-I research program. Many others, including the Soviet Union, have 25X1
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pressed forward to obtain ERTS-I imagery. There has been no sharp
criticism of the operational details of the flight of ERTS-I, and there
have been no "outraged" protests either against any of the ERTS-I imagery
or against the release of this imagery to the general international public.
Indeed, there has been ready and in some instances enthusiastic acceptance
of these arrangements in the context of this experimental program.
Recognizing the Research and Development nature of this first remote
sensing effort, the international community has shown a willingness to over-
look for the time being some of the political, legal, and economic problem
areas which have been of intense concern to a number of states. We believe
the experimental character of SKYLAB has also been recognized and will secure
a similar moratorium on the difficult problems. But the heightened
sensitivity to the inherent issues of sovereignty, proprietary rights,
control, etc., that arise in the dissemination of earth resources sensing
data which appeared during the recent sessions of the UN Working Group on
Remote Sensing in New York suggests that the international community may
not be willing to extend its acceptance of experimental earth resources
sensing satellites into the operational phase of remote sensing activities.
Indeed, some representatives may assert that the "experimental" programs
have already developed, so far as the critical legal and proprietary issues
are concerned, to the stage of operational programs and insist that the
issues involved be resolved without delay. Thus the international concern
about remote sensing and the particular issues which it raises will have
to be dealt with before long. While they need not interfere with present
plans for the SKYLAB experiments, action should be taken in the very near 25X1
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future to determine what our national policies should be on the use of
earth resources sensing satellites.
The photography that will be acquired by the high resolution Earth
Terrain Camera on board SKYLAB is appreciably better than the imagery being
produced by ERTS-I. This improvement in the quality of the photography may
be sufficiently dramatic to arouse some international reaction. To reduce
the risk of this happening, steps have been taken to inform the space and
scientific communities of other nations of our plans to fly the Earth
Terrain Camera on board SKYLAB, so the utilization of this equipment should
come as no surprise to the specialists. Additional actions will be taken
prior to launch, particularly in relation to the policy level officials of
foreign governments, to publicize our intentions and thus minimize any public
reactions engendered by surprise.
Moreover, the time-sequencing of the photographic flight plans
constitutes an additional safeguard. The photography to be acquired doing
the first manned mission is almost entirely of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
The first coverage of any of the "sensitive areas" noted above will not
occur until Mission 2, beginning in August. Finally, the actual public
release of SKYLAB photography will also be sequenced. The very first SKYLAB
photography to be released will be the imagery acquired by the low resolution
cameras. Photography acquired by the Earth Terrain Camera will be released
only later. Further, arrangements are being made to insure that the first
ETC photography released will be of the United States. Only after the
initial news value of the ETC imagery has been dissipated will ETC photography
of Canada or Mexico be made public. Thus the potential problems posed by the 25X1
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public release of (a) evidence of our improved photographic capability
and of (b) actual photographs of other countries are time-separated by
approximately three months. This interval will allow an assessment of
international reaction to the ETC photography taken over (first) the U.S.
and (second) North America, and permit a modification of subsequent release
plans if this should become necessary.
Finally, once the photographic flight plans for SKYLAB are approved,
the photography program is still subject to two further reviews: a final
assessment of the international political factors immediately prior to
launch and a post-launch screening of whatever photography is acquired
before it is released to the public. Thus presently planned photography
which may become sensitive in the months ahead (whether because of the
developing international scene or because of the "sensational" nature of
the particular imagery acquired) can be handled effectively in an appropriate
fashion responsive to the developing situation.
However, in order to provide detailed guidance to those who will
carry out the post-launch screening and to prepare all concerned for the various
contingencies that may arise, action should be initiated now to organize the
SKYLAB screening task force; elaborate the detailed criteria to be used and
the procedures to be followed by the task force; and to study and define
alternative ways of handling the SKYLAB Earth Terrain Camera photography in
the event future international events make it desirable to withhold substantial
amounts of imagery from public release.
The protection of national security interests -- the freedom of
acquisition of intelligence by satellite as well as the collection systems
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themselves -- is one of the most important objectives of the post-launch
screening. Since the Director of Central Intelligence is principally
responsible for the protection of these national security interests and
since he has at his disposal the personnel and equipment assets required
to carry out this responsibility, he is in a better position than anyone
else to organize the SKYLAB screening task force. However, since there
are political and economic as well as intelligence interests involved, the
DCI should arrange for the participation of appropriate representatives
from NASA and from the policy areas of State, Defense, and.ACDA in this
effort in order to obtain the broad range of interest and expertise that
are needed. To the extent that workable arrangements can be made, there
would be substantial advantage in having the screening process (or at
least a major proportion of it) conducted in Washington where the needed
knowledge and skills are readily available.
TOP SECRET
2 April 1973
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20505
I MAR 1973
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oy
MEMORANDUM FOR: William J. Porter
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
SUBJECT: Review of SKYLAB Photographic Flight Plans for
Utilization of Earth Terrain Camera
I. have reviewed the draft paper you sent to me on 22 February and
agree in general with a recommendation to the 40 Committee that the flight
plans proposed by NASA be approved, subject to review by the 40 Committee
immediately prior to launch and screening of acquired photography prior to
public release. I do think, however, that we should also begin a study
now to establish some guidelines which can be followed in this screening
process and to de-f--ermine alternative ways of handling the acquired
photography with a view toward minimizing the risk of unfavorable inter-
national reaction. In addition, I think it would be timely to begin a
more general review of what US policy should be with regard to the
photographing of sovereign states. I realize that an inter-agency group
working under the charter of NSSM 72 is currently considering this
question, but I think this issue is important enough and has enough inter-
action with our reconnaissance programs to warrant a special group
specifically chartered and structured for this task.
Therefore.. I propose the following be added to the recommendation
on page 2 of the draft:
To reduce the risk associated with public release of
the high quality Earth Terrain Camera pictures and to
provide guidance for the post-flight screening to make
it consistent with and supportive of long range national
policy on remote sensing, two studies should be initiated
under the auspices of the NSC:
Signer
Impossible to Determine
date c: .vent)
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1. A review of US policy on remote sensing of other
sovereign states to reflect (a) current knowledge about
the value of photography for resource and economic use and
(b) recent views on US economic interests abroad.
2. A study of alternative procedures for publicizing,
handling and disseminating the Skylab photographs with a
view to minimizing the risk of unfavorable international
reaction to the release of these pictures."
I have attached revisions of pages 6-8 which would make the body of
the draft consistent with this addition to the recommendation.
/s/ James R. Schlesinger
James R. Schlesinger
Director
Attachments:
As Stated
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=w?' ~v :lay opy
Substitutions for Pages 6, 7, 8 of State Department Draft
legal as well as the technical issues raised by remote sensing by satellite,
thirty-eight nations and two international agencies have participated in the
ERTS-l research program. Many others, including the Soviet Union, have
pressed forward to obtain ERTS-l imagery. There has been no sharp criticism
of the operational details of the flight of ERTS-1, and there have been no
"outraged" protests either against any of the ERTS-1 imagery or against the
release of this imagery to the general international public. Indeed, there
has been ready and in some instances enthusiastic acceptance of these
arrangements in the context of this experimental program.
Recognizing the Research and Development nature of this first remote
sensing effort, the international community has shown a willingness to over-
look for the time being some of the political, legal, and economic problem
areas which have been of intense concern to a number of states. We believe
the experimental character of SKYLAB has also been recognized and will secure
a similar moratorium on the difficult problems. But the heightened sensitivity
to the inherent issues of sovereignty, proprietary rights, control, etc.,
that arise in the dissemination of earth resources sensing data which appeared
during the recent sessions of the UN Working Group on Remote Sensing in New
York suggests that the international community may not be willing to extend
its acceptance of experimental activities into the operational phases of
remote sensing. This international concern about remote sensing and the
particular issues which it raises will have to be dealt with before long.
While they need not interfere with NASA's plans for SKYLAB experiments,
actions should be taken now to study what our national policies should be
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in this regard and how the photography acquired by SKYLAB should be
disseminated.
-The photography that will be acquired by the high resolution Earth
Terrain Camera on board SKYLAB is appreciably better than the imagery
produced by ERTS-l, and the improvement in the quality of the photography
may be sufficiently dramatic as to arouse some international reaction.
To reduce the risk of this happening, steps have been taken to inform the
space and scientific communities of other nations of our plans to fly
the Earth Terrain Camera on board SKYLAB, so the utilization of this
equipment should come as no surprise to the specialists. Additional
actions will be taken prior to launch, particularly in relation to the
policy level officials of foreign governments, to publicize our intentions
and thus minimize any public reactions engendered by surprise.
Moreover, the time-sequencing of the photographic flight plans are
safeguards to allow an assessment of international reaction based on
photos taken over North America and a modification of subsequent plans if
necessary. The photography to be acquired during the first manned mission
is almost entirely of the US, Canada; and Mexico. The first coverage of
any of the "sensitive areas" will not occur until Mission 2, beginning
in August.
Finally, once the photographic flight plans for SKYLAB are approved,
the photography program is still subject to two further reviews: a final
assessment of the international political factors immediately prior to
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launch and a post-launch screening of whatever photography is acquired
before it is released to the public. Thus photography that may become
sensitive in the months ahead (whether because of the developing inter-
national scene or because of the "sensational" nature of the particular
imagery acquired) can be handled in a way appropriate to the situation.
However, to prepare ourselves for the various contingencies that may be
encountered, and to provide guidance to those who will do post-launch
"screeni.ng", we propose that a study be started now to define alternative
ways of handling the SKYLAB photos in the event that future international
events make it desirable to withhold substantial portions from public
release.
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