Of the 3 books on this subject which I have so far read, this was the first book I obtained and read. The book is a compilation of papers/speeches of a meeting. The most accurate picture can be gained by having all three books (sorry, but more $ to Amazon, and you may tire of seeing certain images again). This book represents rare original source material from cold war history. There are some good pointers in the Appendix. Careful reading of papers talk about computing (++) and what is now regarded as "virtual reality" (++). Day's book has a chapter on the Soviet Zenit program lacking in other books (++).

Peebles' Corona book has more chapters on the human side of the recovery and process (minor Day--).

The most technical, expensive, longest-delivery time, and most professional is McDonald's ASPRS book on this same meeting. A chapter details the Corona earth model (++, math). The appendices include redacted original reports (++) and some marginally reproduced space images (++). The book also has a pointer to the breast cancer X-ray ID which the NRO/CIA claim to have released. These will not be found in Day.

>This book is less a narrative and more a series of accounts byindividuals throughout the life of the CORONA project. As such, itreads a bit differently from a single-author non-fiction book. However, this form adds detail, personal perspective, and color to the account of the project. I hope that future books can be written using this material and the newly declassified government material to write a full account of the CORONA program and its heirs and its impact to international affairs. END

The genesis of this book was a conference in May 1995 which brought together many of the main players in the CORONA project at the time it was declassified. The book contains chapters by different authors on specific aspects of the project including its historical context, technical development, impact of the resulting intellignce, etc. A short chapter on the corresponding Soviet "Zenit" project is also included. The different chapter authors bring interesting perspectives and specialist knowledge at the expense of some repetition. The photographs are also very nice. This is a more scholarly and comprehensive treatment than the Peebles book on the same subject.