From the Archives: Edward Aldridge, NRO Director, speech

On July 12, 1983, the day the 20th Hexagon Sensor Subsystem was shipped from Perkin-Elmer to the west coast, The Honorable Edward C. Aldridge, Under Secretary of the Air Force, Director National Reconnaissance Office, addressed a large group of Perkin-Elmer people who had participated in the design and manufacture of the Sensor Subsystem. A part of his speech follows.

"In June of 1971, the first of a new breed of satellite reconnaissance systems was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base and ushered in a new age in terms of satellite photography. The program success has continued almost  unabated and permits us to talk in glowing terms of performance characteristics such as: up to seven months on orbit; over 300,000 feet of film (60 miles); total mission area coverage nearly equal to the landmass of the earth. We didn't get to this point by accident; it was achieved through perseverance, technical competence and a lot of hard work. Many of you in the audience, I am sure, can remember the bustle of the initial years. In comparison, today must seem very serene. That initial launch in 1971 was not really the beginning but rather the culmination of a dream. This dream started in 1965 when your company became involved in a competition to build a revolutionary spacecraft capable of handling reconnaissance requirements fostered by the emergence of Russia and China as superpowers. In 1966, Perkin-Elmer was chosen to participate as an associate contractor in what has become one of our most important intelligence programs. It is hard to believe that seventeen years have passed since that date. However, the validity of that initial decision has been confirmed and reconfirmed with the passage of time. The success of the Hexagon Program has established the standard for all future satellite reconnaissance programs to emulate and a goal for our present systems. This success can be measured in many ways. For example, since the first launch in 1971, imaging lifetime has increased over 800 percent; film capacity has increased 50 percent; mission area coverage has increased 100 percent. Even with these impressive facts, it is impossible to measure Hexagon's considerable contribution to our national defense. This importance can be sensed only if we cite examples such as SALT verification, coverage of crisis areas like the Middle East, and terrain mapping for the Cruise Missile."