One of the concerns expressed over cuts to the Defense Department is that it may undermine research and development. One of the by-products of defense spending has been the promotion of technology that first aids defense and then eventually hits the private sector and leads to the development of new products and industries. The list is long - the telegraph, radio, airplanes, jet engines, rocketry, computers, and the internet.
Recently information has been declassified about the KH-9 Hexagon satellite, a cold war era surveillance satellite that took high resolution photographs of the Soviet Union during the 1960s and beyond. While attention was paid to the race to the moon, the real advance in space had less to do with exploration and more to do with the increasingly sophisticated satellites placed in orbit that began performing - and continue to perform - variety of functions.
Here are two stories related to the program:
- TOP SECRET: Your Briefing on the CIA's Cold-War Spy Satellite, 'Big Bird'
- Declassified US Spy Satellites . . .
The story points out the role the public sector has played in promoting basic research and development, and how this in turn promotes the viability of the commercial republic.
