THIRTY YEARS OF MAPPING FROM SPACE 
Frederick J. Doyle 
Past President, ISPRS 
Commission IV, Working Group 2 
KEY WORDS: Mapping, Space, Systems, History 
ABSTRACT: 
International political sensitivity delayed the development of civil systems for mapping the Earth from space. Instead technical advances 
were directed to lunar mapping. The military and intelligence communities developed the CORONA reconnaissance satellite system in 
the United States, and the ZENIT system in the Soviet Union. Photography from these systems has recently been declassified. Starting 
in 1972 electro-optical systems of increasing capability were built: LANDSAT in the U.S., SPOT in France, JERS in Japan, and IRS in 
India. These were followed by radar systems in the U.S., Japan, European Space Agency, and Canada. Recently high resolution 
photography from Russian space systems has been made commercially available. A revolution is now under way as commercial 
organizations are permitted to develop their own high resolution electro-optical imaging satellites, and sell the resulting data to the 
international market. 
THE BEGINNING 
When Sputnik 1 was orbited by the USSR in October 1957, it 
did nothing but emit a "Beep, Beep". But that beep clearly 
announced the beginning of a new era. Photogrammetrists, 
cartographers, Earth scientists, environmentalists, all expected 
that photography from Earth-orbiting spacecraft would result in 
an increase in the capability and efficiency of collecting 
information about the Earth comparable to that which occurred 
when aerial photography replaced ground surveys. Many studies 
were made and proposals submitted for systems of varying 
complexity. But it didn't happen! Not in the United States, and 
not in the USSR, the only two nations then capable of launching 
space vehicles. 
Political sensitivity to the implications of one nation looking at 
another and making the information openly available inhibited the 
development of competent Earth-observing spacecraft. In the 
United States the NASA space program concentrated on 
developing the capability to support man in space. In the 
Mercury, Gemini, and early Apollo p:ograms, the astronauts 
operated nothing more sophisticated than hand-held Hasselblad 
cameras. These produced beautiful, historic, and fascinating 
pictures of the terrestrial landscape but photography was only a 
minor part of the mission objectives. The resulting photographs 
lacked the scale, resolution, and systematic coverage needed for 
mapping, resource evaluation, or intelligence. 
LUNAR MAPPING 
Technological development of space imaging systems by NASA 
was concentrated on the Race to the Moon between the United 
States and the USSR. Ranger, Surveyor, and Lunar Orbiter 
employed systems of increasing complexity and capability. Lunar 
Orbiter provided the first comprehensive coverage of the far side 
of the Moon. These systems demonstrated the ability to transmit 
enormous amounts of high quality image data from space. The 
Mapping and Panoramic Cameras carried on the later Apollo 
lunar missions clearly showed that precise topographic mapping 
information could be produced by competent film-return systems. 
Nearly a third of the Moon's surfi:e was covered by a 
227 
photogrammetric control network with 30 meter accuracy, and 
topographic maps were made for a large part of the area. Those 
who were involved in the lunar mapping program can rightly be 
proud of their accomplishments, but in retrospect the lunar 
program seems to have been merely a diversion. The Apollo 
program, originally planned for 20 missions, was abandoned 
after Mission 17. Polar orbits for the Mapping and Panoramic 
Cameras, contemplated for the later missions, never took place. 
The Apollo Command-Service Module was diverted to the 
politically correct link-up with the Soviet Soyuz spacecraft. 
Handshakes between NASA astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts 
replaced hard science. This was certainly not all a bad thing, 
but the objective of precise mappihg of the lunar surface 
remained unfulfilled both in the USA and the Soviet Union. 
RECONNAISSANCE SATELLITES 
Meanwhile other communities were not inhibited by political 
sensitivities. The United States and the USSR were locked in 
the Cold War, and knowledge of each other's offensive and 
defensive capabilities was critical. Both nations developed 
reconnaissance satellites, but the system parameters and the 
data produced were highly classified on both sides. As early as 
1963, the USSR acknowledged the principle of space-based 
reconnaissance, but the U.S. did not openly admit to any 
capability until 1978. Although there have been many articles 
speculating on U. S. system capabilities (1)*, and several major 
security leaks of both data and images, hard information about 
the early U. S. systems became publicly available only in 1995 
with the declassification of the CORONA system (2). 
The CORONA program developed a series of increasingly 
competent panoramic camera systems with the code name 
KeyHole (KH). The first several systems had a single camera; 
with KH-4 a pair of convergent cameras were provided to 
acquire stereoscopic coverage. ARGON (KH-5) was a frame 
camera used to establish geodetic control by analytical 
aerotriangulation. These control points were used for targeting 
  
*Numbers in parentheses refer to items in the List of References. 
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B4. Vienna 1996