The book begins with a look into World War II and how the event of Pearl Harbor pressed the need for aerial reconnaissance. The first chapter gives the different

technological challenges that had to be faced in order to achieve aerospace superiority. This chapter takes a close look into the development of the WS-117L reconnaissance satellite and how the two projects are related.

The main thrust that the project received was from the launch of Sputnik I. With the Soviets now seemingly ahead, the author explains how the project was taken away from the Air Force who was failing with the WS-117L and passed the mission onto the CIA for the development of the Corona satellites. Peebles explains that the difference between the two programs

As an imagery analyst, I found the information provided on the satellites capabilities to be utterly captivating. From the start of the program only an airstrip could be identified and only a decade later, the aircraft on that airstrip could be counted. The great accomplishment made in the twelve years of the project is definitely the improved resolution from forty feet to six feet (although planned for two feet). This type of progress, nearly 300 percent improvement, in such a short period of time has not been experienced since. The author's appendixes and charts give good insight into the timeline and the overall achievements of the program as well.

One of the most impressive parts of this book that I found was the continuous references that Peebles makes to personal memorandums and conversations held by officials of the project's years. The author's collection of hand-held snapshots, depicting individual engineers and other personnel that were involved with the project, gives a more personal attachment to the people associated with the project. It is sometimes hard to think about the hundreds or even thousands of people that had to be cleared and entrusted with the mission to document as much of the assets located behind the iron curtain.

The bread and butter of the information provided in the text can be found in chapters seven through nine. In these chapters the author provides detailed information about how the satellite preformed operations. Furthermore, Peebles begins sharing new information about recently declassified photography of Soviet (and a few other countries) installations. The humorous encounters that the imagery interpreters encountered on the job gives the reader a good relief in these chapters.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Key Hole, Air Force, Project Peebles, Furthermore Peebles, Spy Satellites, Curtis Peebles, Pearl Harbor, Soviet Union, corona project, Sputnik Soviets, Space Museum, detailed information, earth's surface, imagery intelligence, aerial reconnaissance, corona satellites, america's spy satellites, satellite program, information provided, satellites author, peebles makes, corona project america's, key hole cameras, project america's spy, resolution forty feet,
Approximate Word count = 1175
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)