Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Credit: University Press of Florida, 2015

Declassified records that trace the hidden interactions between NASA and national security space programs have been posted for the first time by the National Security Archive at The George Washington University.

James David, a curator in NASA’s Division of Space History, obtained the documents in the course of researching his newly published book: Spies and Shuttles: NASA’s Secret Relationships with the DoD and CIA.

In a statement from the National Security Archive, David compiled, edited and introduced more than 50 records for posting as an “Electronic Briefing Book” on the Archive’s website.

Cover stories

According to declassified documents, the Archive said that “furnishing cover stories for covert operations, monitoring Soviet missile tests, and supplying weather data to the U.S. military have been part of the secret side of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) since its inception in 1958.”

According to David, a combination of circumstances led the agency to commingle its activities with secret programs operated by the U.S. military and Intelligence Community.

“This often tight cooperation did not, however, keep disputes from bubbling over on issues such as cost sharing, access to classified information, encryption of data originally intended for civilian use, and delays to military satellite launches caused by the Challenger disaster,” notes the Archive.

Declassified documents

David said that the documents presented were obtained in the research and writing of Spies and Shuttles: NASA’s Secret Relationships with the DoD and CIA.

“Most were declassified by agencies under the automatic/systematic declassification review program or acquired through declassification requests,” David explains.

The documents are grouped into the following categories:

1. NASA as a consumer of intelligence

2. NASA’s assistance to analyzing intelligence on foreign aeronautical and space programs

3. NASA’s participation in cover stories

4. NASA’s acquisition and use of classified technologies in its lunar exploration program

5. Restrictions on NASA’s remote sensing programs

6. NASA’s application satellites and national security requirements

7. Space Shuttle that performed eight dedicated, classified Shuttle missions from 1988-1992.

For your own look at the Archive’s posting on NASA’s secret relationships with U.S. Defense and intelligence agencies, go to:

http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB509/

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