Talk:Casa Grande Photogrammetric Test Range

Latest comment: 2 years ago by GretLomborg in topic Proposed Move

Proposed Move

edit

It seems these test targets had nothing to do with the CORONA satellites but was for calibrating reconnaissance airplanes:

See https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4094/1:

And to hammer home the linkage to aerial photogrammetry, I found this description from John O. Phillips the Chief of the Geodesy Division, Coast and Geodetic Survey, circa 1966:

“The resurvey on the original Phoenix, Arizona, test area was completed early in 1963 with modern electronic distance measuring equipment and triangulation methods, and the results were rigidly adjusted during the reporting period. The resurvey and the adjustment were performed to provide accuracy commensurate with currently used aerial photogrammetric equipment…[C]onsiderable progress has been made on surveys to establish another test range (Casa Grande Test Range) just south of the original Phoenix test area. The Casa Grande was designed to be a superaccurate range for use in dynamic calibration of aerial cameras. When completed, the Casa Grande test range will consist of 273 points positioned horizontally and vertically by precision survey methods. Each point will be elaborately paneled, and all points will be located according to an orderly arrangement within a 16-mile square area.” [19] (Emphasis added)

...

The idea that the Casa Grande range was developed for the CORONA program is asinine when looking at the timelines of range construction, stories about the range’s purpose twice posted on the front page of a local newspaper, the government photogrammetry description, and the technical aspects of what the National Reconnaissance Program photographic satellites required for calibration. The use of satellites for reconnaissance and surveillance ostensibly remained close hold until the declassification of the NRO in 1992 and the release of CORONA programmatic information in 1995.

Given that fact, should this page be renamed from Corona Satellite Calibration Targets to the more neutral Casa Grande Calibration Targets?

- GretLomborg (talk) 19:20, 18 November 2021 (UTC)Reply

I decided to be WP:BOLD and did the move. GretLomborg (talk) 19:39, 18 November 2021 (UTC)Reply