I would guess a development of Corona, the earliest spy satellites. Those earliest spy satellites were essentially disposable cameras. When full they dropped the film to be caught in mid air by the air force.
(A fascinating wiki hole - you may be gone some time) :)
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> Imagine what it took to develop the photos in space and beam them back to earth.
For one type of satellite that I heard about, the US were dropping the film canisters and catching them in flight, to develop later: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_(satellite)
I would guess a development of Corona, the earliest spy satellites. Those earliest spy satellites were essentially disposable cameras. When full they dropped the film to be caught in mid air by the air force.
(A fascinating wiki hole - you may be gone some time) :)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_(satellite)
It can be much, much more accurate than that if needed.
In 1960s America had spy satellites that dropped canisters with photo film, that were captured mid-air by planes.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_(satellite)#Discoverer