Photos: A satellite spy in the skies

The Corona satellite program captured its last images in 1972. Through 145 launches over the 12 years of service, the project recorded more than 800,000 satellite images. This one, from November 1970, shows logging and gold dredging activities in Siberia.

Coincidentally or not, the Landsat scientific satellite-imaging program, run by NASA and the US Geological Survey, began in 1972.

Credit: National Reconnaissance Office