1971 laser ASAT experiment

I have declassified cable from one unidentified party to another
equally unidentified party relating to a laser vulnerability
experiment that was being considered using the CORONA Mission
1115. One assumes that the parties were in the CIA/USAF/NRO.

The cable is dated 17 September 1971, during the flight, which
was launched on 10 September and dropped two film buckets on
September 18 and September 29.

It's interesting that the document discusses not only a
blinding experiment, but also looking at grosser physical effects
such as heating and solar cell degradation after the second bucket
had been dropped -- i.e., on or not much after after 29 September
1971.

Obviously, there must have been a high-powered laser with
associated beam director/tracking mount available for quick-
response tasking. It is only identified as "the RML capability"
Perhaps NML or HML -- my copy of the cable is in bad shape. If
anyone is interested, I can email a scan of it.)

Does anybody here know what the [RNH]ML capability might have been?
Or, in general, what lasers/beam directors were around at the time
that would have been able to cause significant heating and possible
solar cell damage to a satellite? Laser blinding capability in 1971
wouldn't be surprising, but what else was around?

(It's also interesting that the satellite carried solar cells. The
basic CORONA ran on batteries, but Mission 1115 was a KH-4B/J-3
model, which was the last of the line and considerably bigger than
earlier ones. It would be interesting to find out if the solar cells
were used for main mission power or something else.)

Here's an ASCIIized version of the cable; it's printed on a standard
message form, which has the headers "CLASSIFIED MESSAGE",
"SECRET" "(When Filled In)" and "REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED". It bears
the declassification stamp

Declassified and Released by the NRO
In Accordance with E.O. 12958
on NOV 26 1997

---------------------------------------------------------------------

[REDACTED]

SECRET 172158Z SEP 71 CITE [REDACTED]

PRIORITY [REDACTED] INFO PRORITY [ REDACTED ]

[REDACTED] CORONA

SUBJ: LASER ILLUMINATED SATELLITE VEHICLE PHOTOGRAPHIC
EXPERIMENT

REF: PHONECON[ REDACTED ] 16 SEP

1. IT IS REQUESTED THAT YOU DEVELOP A PLAN FOR THE CONDUCT OF
A LASER ILLUMINATED PHOTOGRAPHIC EXPERIENT UTILIZING THE R[HN?]ML
CAPABILITY AND CORONA 1115 AS THE TARGET VEHICLE. YOUR
PLANNING SHOULD ADDRESS THE APPROPRIATE ASPECTS OF
PHOTOGRAPHIC OPERATIONS DURING THE ACTIVE PORTION OF MISSION
1115 WHEN THE PAYLOAD COULD DETECT THE ILLUMINATOR AND LATER


PAGE 2 [REDACTED] SECRET

OPERATIONS AFTER RV-2 RECOVERY WHEN HIGHER LEVELS OF
ILLUMINATION MIGHT BE PRACTICAL. IN THIS LATTER PHASE, THE
POTENTIAL FOR DETECTING DESTRUCTIVE ILLUMINATION EFFECTS
(HEATING, SOLAR CELL DEGRADATION, ETC.) THROUGHT THE VEHICLE
TELEMETRY SHOULD BE CONSIDERED.

2. REQUEST YOU ADVISE THIS OFFICE AS TO POTENTIAL SCHEDULES
RISK, AND OTHER PERTINENT DATA WHICH WOULD AFFECT AN APPROVAL
DECISION AS AVAILABLE. POINT OF CONTACT IS [REDACTED] OR
[REDACTED]

SECRET

BT [PERHAPS DT]

In sci.space.policy Allen Thomson wrote:
B

: Obviously, there must have been a high-powered laser with
: associated beam director/tracking mount available for quick-
: response tasking. It is only identified as "the RML capability"
: Perhaps NML or HML -- my copy of the cable is in bad shape. If
: anyone is interested, I can email a scan of it.)

: Does anybody here know what the [RNH]ML capability might have been?
: Or, in general, what lasers/beam directors were around at the time
: that would have been able to cause significant heating and possible
: solar cell damage to a satellite? Laser blinding capability in 1971
: wouldn't be surprising, but what else was around?

The facility being used was probably the Malabar Test Facility.
Specifically, IIRC in 1971 it was used in similar tests on nudet
sensors, and had been the primary space/laser facility since its
establishment in the 60s. I'm not certain exactly what "RML" means.

regards,
------------------------------------------------------

Steven James Forsberg wrote


The facility being used was probably the Malabar Test Facility.
Specifically, IIRC in 1971 it was used in similar tests on nudet
sensors, and had been the primary space/laser facility since its
establishment in the 60s. I'm not certain exactly what "RML" means.

Thank you, Malabar does seem like a good possibiity. According to
http://www.fas.org/spp/military/prog...ck/malabar.htm ,

The OL-AG, Phillips Laboratory's mission is to perform real-time
tracking of space objects, to use various sensors to study the
effects of physical phenomena on space vehicles, to develop and
test new sensors and electrooptical devices, and to provide
tracking support for Kennedy Space Center(KSC) and Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station (CCAFS) launches.

The Malabar test facility was opened in the early 1960s to study
lasers and laser effects...

I'd still like to know what laser was considered for producing
heating effects and solar cell degradation -- perhaps a FOIA
request is in order.