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Lockheed Agena Upper Stage
- Year
- 1959
- Creator
- Lockheed Missiles and Space Division
- Company
- Lockheed
- Location
- Sunnyvale, California
Description
The Agena is a rocket upper stage that also served as the body of a satellite. The example shown is an Agena-B, a Sunnyvale design, at the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Center.
Importance
The Agena carried the Corona reconnaissance satellites, which the CIA and the Air Force presented to the public as a science program called Discoverer. Lockheed made nearly 400 Agenas on a Sunnyvale assembly line, at a rate of three each month. This military space work arrived in the Valley in the same years as Shockley's laboratory and Fairchild.
Interesting fact
Agena reconnaissance missions carried close to 50 small Ferret satellites for electronic intelligence as extra payloads.
Sources
- The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part 15: Agena, the Secret Space Truck, Ferrets and Stanford ↗Steve Blank · 2010-03-08
- CORONA: America's First Satellite Program (ed. Kevin C. Ruffner) ↗Central Intelligence Agency, Center for the Study of Intelligence · 1995