Front cover image for The Dorian files revealed : a compendium of the NRO's manned orbiting laboratory documents

The Dorian files revealed : a compendium of the NRO's manned orbiting laboratory documents

"The Manned Orbiting Laboratory Program was publicly disclosed from its early inception -- first by the Air Force in 1963 and later by President Johnson in 1965 when the program was described as a means for advancing the military's use of space. Many elements of the program have been well known, including the identities of the men selected to serve as MOL crew members, the configuration of the launch vehicle used to place the MOL in orbit and general details of some of the experiments that were planned for the vehicle. What has not been revealed, until now, is the extent to which the MOL was designed to serve as a platform for national reconnaissance collection. Readers of this compendium will find a remarkable collection of documents. The collection has a number of themes. For instance readers will find documents on the public affairs strategy for explaining a military program in space. This was, and remains, a sensitive subject especially as adversaries seek advantages offered through space reconnaissance and technical programs. Readers interested in cooperation between US government organizations will note the efforts necessary to accommodate different objectives between the US Air Force, NASA, and NRO. Readers interested in the origins of manned space flight will discover a wide range of concepts to assure continued presence of US military crews in space. Readers will find concepts born in the MOL program take remarkable shape in programs matured under NASA manned space programs. Readers will also gain insight into the resources battles that occur as administrations weigh the advantages and tradeoffs of programs competing for the same pool of scarce resources. Finally, the document collection provides insight into how a large program is terminated and closed out. In the many years since MOL's termination a dedicated group of space enthusiasts have discussed what could have been had the program continued. Perhaps a difference perspective is to question the contributions of the program in terms of expertise that was carried to other space and national defense programs by those who participated in MOL and the development and transfer of technology from the MOL program. On these terms, MOL has a strong and important legacy here at the National Reconnaissance Agency and elsewhere in federal space and national defense enterprises"--Foreword
Print Book, English, 2015
National Reconnaissance Office, Center for the Study of National Reconnaissance, Chantilly, Virginia, 2015
History
xv, 211 pages : illustrations ; 28 cm + 1 DVD-ROM (4 3/4 in.)
9781937219185, 1937219186
966293037
Introduction
Carl Berger's A history of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory Program Office: Early space station planning; A national space station; DYNA-SOAR killed, MOL approved; Planning the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, December 1963-June 1964; Evolution of the MOL management structure; Results of the pre-phase I investigation; The laboratory vehicle design competition, January-June 1965; The MOL Program decision, 25 August 1965; Organizing for contract definition; The manned/unmanned system studies, 1965-1966; Budget, developmental , and schedule problems, 1965-1966; Congress, MOL security, and the range controversy; Air Force/NASA coordination; New financial and schedule problems, 1967-1968; The project terminated; Post-mortem
Supplemental documents index
"August 2015."
"Including Carl Berger's 'A history of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory Program Office,' MOL Program Office Department of the Air Force Washington, D.C."
Includes DVD-ROM containing 282 photographs in JPEG format and 825 supplemental documents in PDF format; index to supplemental documents included on pages 175-211 and as a PDF file on the DVD