Photography of orbiting satellites

U.S. Air Force facilities and uses for ground-based close-up photography of objects in space out to GEO are discussed. The telescopes and cameras have been employed to monitor cosmonaut EVAs around Salyut 6 and in an attempt to assess the tile damage on STS-1. Two classified systems, Teal Amber and Teal Blue, in addition to the five DoD ground-based Electrooptical Deep Space Surveillance stations can detect an approximately one foot diameter object in GEO. The initial Cloudcroft, NM facility, contracted in 1957 to use Baker-Nunn telescopes coupled to an IBM 1800 computer, is described. Uses of the detection systems to monitor a possible Soviet development of an ASAT system, such as installation of antisatellite torpedo tubes on the Salyut space station, are indicated.