Beginning in the 1950s, the United States extended its military activities into space to provide for its defense in a global conflict with the Soviet Union. Over the next four decades, the Nation put in place an impressive array of satellites that provided remote sensing, communications, and geospatial location services. The first task for these military satellites was to obtain strategic information that neither aircraft nor human agents could access. The development of other space services (in communications and navigation) enabled a responsive global defense. |