Three shadowy relics of the Cold War will emerge at the National Museum of the US Air Force in late January, reports the Dayton Daily News. The National Reconnaissance Office donated the recently declassified intelligence satellites, along with hundreds of historical documents, to the museum, which is located in Dayton, Ohio. Code-named Key Hole, the KH-7 Gambit 1, the KH-8 Gambit 3, and the KH-9 Hexagon satellites photographed sensitive military targets over the communist bloc from the 1960s to 1980s. The spacecraft will go on public display after a commemorative ceremony, according to the newspaper. NRO declassified the satellites in September during a ceremony at the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center in northern Virginia. (See NRO’s special webpage for access to the declassified Gambit and Hexagon records.) (See also Space Flight Now report.)
The defense intelligence community has tried three times in the past decade to build a “common intelligence picture”—a single data stream providing the information that commanders need to make decisions about the battlefield. The first two attempts failed. But officials say things are different today.