Samos (satellite)

The Samos E or SAMOS ("Satellite and Missile Observation System") program was a relatively short-lived series of reconnaissance satellites for the United States in the early 1960s, also used as a cover for the initial development of the KH-7 Gambit system.Reconnaissance was performed with film cameras and television surveillance from polar low Earth orbits with film canister returns and transmittals over the United States. Samos was first launched in 1960 from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

SAMOS was also known by the unclassified terms Program 101 and Program 201.

Samos started as part of the WS-117L satellite reconnaissance and protection program of the United States Air Force in 1956. In May 1958 the Department of Defense directed the transfer of the WS-117L program to ARPA. Significant parts of the Samos development program were Samos-E (visual reconnaissance), Samos-F (ELINT Ferret reconnaissance), and Samos-H (communications).

In FY1958 WS-117L was funded by the Air Force at a level of US$108.2 million (inflation adjusted US$ 0.90 billion in 2017). For Samos, AF and ARPA spent a combined sum of US$82.9 million in FY1959 (inflation adjusted US$0.68 billion in 2017) and US$163.9 million in FY1960 (inflation adjusted US$1.33 billion in 2017).

During this period, the rival CORONA program, which saw its first launch in February 1959, began operation. Samos emerged as a more advanced satellite with additional capabilities that due to its larger mass would be launched on the Atlas-Agena booster instead of the Thor-Agena. While CORONA took photographs and returned them to Earth in a film capsule, Samos would instead electronically scan its film and beam images down by radio link.

Although "Samos" was the name of a Greek island, the satellite's name actually consisted of an abbreviation for the clumsy phrase "Satellite And Missile Observation System", a completely misleading name designed to cover up the real purpose of the program. In any case, President Eisenhower was adamant about cultivating the image that the US space program was only for peaceful purposes. The Air Force for a while managed to create the fiction that Discoverer was a series of scientific satellites, but Samos's real purpose was known from the beginning, and efforts to not link it to Discoverer were made.

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