MEETING IN THE OFFICE OF MR. U. ALEXIS JOHNSON, DEPUTY UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF STATE, 29 DECEMBER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP63-00313A000600180075-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 5, 2002
• Sequence Number: 75
• Publication Date: January 2, 1962
• Content Type: MFR

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2 January 1962
I4 4ORA JM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT : Meeting in the Office of Mr. U. Alexis Johnson, Deputy Under
Secretary of State for Political. Affairs, Department of State,
29 December
Resolution Passed by the United Nations General Assembly
20 December 1961 Regarding Registration of Satellite Launchings
ponsored by U. S. Delegation)
1. Mr. Eugene Kiefer, Special Assistant for Technical Analysis, Devel-
opment Projects Division, and the undersigned met at 1400 hours 29 December
in the office of the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs at
his request with Mr. Philip Farley, Special Assistant to the Secretary of
State for Atomic Energy and Space, and Dr. Joseph Charyk, Assistant Secretary
of the Air Force for Research and Development, to discuss actions stemming
from the referenced resolution, a copy of which in draft, dated. 11 December
1961, was available to us. The background of the resolution as brought out
at the meeting indicates that the idea geminated in the International Organi-
zations Division, Department of State, presumably as a tactic to at a minimum
require the Russians to register basic information regarding their satellite
launchings. State coordinated the idea with the Office of International
Security Affairs, Department of Defense, at an unspecified time, but further
coordination within the DOD, particularly in the Air Forcce, appears not to
have taken place between ISA and the military. The Department also coordinated
with the National: Aeronautics and Space Administration, and having received
no negative inputs from any of the aforementioned, the resolution was surfaced
as Agenda Item 21 of the Sixteenth Session, United: Nations General Assembly,
First Committee, "Report of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Spacer'.
Passage occurred in December shortly before Christmas.
2. The concern now felt by the Department and the Air Force and, of
course, CIA revolves around the primary problem of compliance with the fall
language of the resolution.
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"Calls upon States launching objects into orbit ors beyond
furnish inforamation r l to the Conittee on the peaceful
Uses of outer space through the Secretary-General for Wises
of registration of launchir;
"Requests the secretary-feral to maintain a public
registry of the information furnished in accordance with para-
graph 1 above."
In the quotation above the critical words are underlined to illustrate the
problem faced by the several Agencies. Until recently DOD policy has been
to publicly announce launching of satellites under their control by means
of press handouts distributed just prior to the firing, or in some cases
itediately after orbit is achieved. Within recent weeks in the case of
SAMS and MAS, this policy has been restricted to a simple announcement of
the launch. NASA has consistently followed a policy of fairly full press
release data, including the vital statistics of mission, payload, and con-
figuration openly available to the press. In addition, the Goddard Space
Flight Center has published a Satellite a Situation RR rt periodical, as well
as a ace Activities bra. Roth of these documents cover not only objects
launched by or controlled by NASA, but in reality constitute an inventory of
all objects remaining in orbit on a given date, both U. S. and foreign. In
addition, the Space Control Center of AD in Colorado Springs maintains an
active inventory of all orbital vehicles, casings, etc.
3. It was evident during the discussion that United States' concern
over the lications under the U. N. resolution are manifold, including the
following
a. It has been United States practice to give mission-
oriented code names to various military and scientific satel-
lites; i.e., l ` , DISCOVAM, Ste, MIDAS, and the like.
Given the present DOD desire to avoid press publicity on vehicle
launchings where the mission is some form of reconnaissance, it
is Dr. Charyk's view, with which no one dissented, that in any
compliance with the U. R. resolution, there must be a break with
the tradition of the past having to do with the use of mission-
oriented code names. Three possibilities were suggested.
(1) Adoption of the Smithsonian Astrophysical
Laboratory system which utilizes one or more Greek
letters, plus a number designating the items of hard-
ware in orbit.
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Use of an indicator simply giving the power
plant designator with a sequential numbering system
i.e., "ATLAS-THOR Booster No. 161."
(3) Adoption of some internationally acceptable
form of satellite identification, again non-mission-
oriented., but simply categorized; i.e., "U. S. Earth
Satellite No. 3", or "Ti. g. Lunar Probe No. 1", etc.
b. The amount of data required under the language of the
N. resolution is at the moment a grey area. If it is assumed
that the purpose of the launching must be covered, then some
fairly non-inforestional, generalized statement of purpose must
be prepared for each launch. Consideration of this matter has
fallen to Dr. Charyk, who will be the recipient of an identical
letter being sent to DOD and NASA from Mr. Johnson, formally
requesting reaction to the U. N. resolution.
a. Because of the potential importance of single-orbit
reconnaissance satellite launchings in the future, it was
informally agreed that these should not be included within any
information reported to the U. N. Secretariat in conformity
with the resolution. Precedent in eliminating this group of
launchinga,mould: be said to lie with the original Russian orbital
flight of Major Gagarin which lasted only 1? 0 minutes. This
assumption is, of course,, based upon the premise that the ulti-
mate purpose of the resolution is to provide an inventory to
guarantee that outer space is used only for peaceful purposes
and that no continued threat lies in orbiting hardware. This
does not take into account any problems presented by downstream
development of bombardment platforms in space.
d. Since it was assumed that the Russians would do every-
in their power, to minimize the spread of any vital infor-
mation about their own launchings, it was fairly well agreed that
certainly at the start any U. S. response should say little more
than absolutely necessary. Consequently, it was informally con-
cluded that there would be no release of telemetry frequencies or
specific payload data. The question of the reporting of an actual
orbital period was discussed but left open. Discussion revolved
around the time at which an orbit could be considered fixed, as
in the case of any satellite discharging a recoverable payload
where the subsequent orbit of the residual casing was different
than the original orbit achieved.
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4, The contents of current NASA press releases on satellite launchings
came under discussion in view of their relative completeness and accuracy,
and it was generally concluded that in the future, DOD programs would have
to be excluded from such releases, but that nothing done by the DOD in this
respect would limit NASA in those instances (such as the 3 RCM program)
where it is wholly desirable that full data be released in a mangier consis-
tent with past practice. In these cases such information would be considered
supplemental to the basic con non denominator reporting system which would apply under the U. N. resolution to all U. S. satellite launchings.
5. No time was established for covmsunioationa from the Doyartment to
the U. S. Ambassador to the U. N. on this subject, although Mr. Johnson
felt at the and of the meeting that he was in a position to finalize the
draft of his letter to DOD and NASA on the subject which would solicit a
position from, these Agencies. Mr. Johnson suggested that consideration be
given to a fairly complete briefing on U. S. reconnaissance satellites to
Ambassador Adlai Stevenson and his associate, Mr. Harlan Cleveland. Mir.
Johnson and. Dr. Charyk, together with Mr. Farley, agreed that it would be
timely to give a similar briefing to Edward Welch, Secretary of the National
Space Council under the Vice President. I told Mr. Johnson that the Vice
President had been briefed on satellite programs under the purview of CIA,
and then he asked me to take steps to have Mx. Welch brought in on these
same programs once formal concurrence had been obtained from the Vice
President himself.
6. The meeting concluded without a determination to meet again on the
subject in the same air of surprise in which it began. This atmosphere is
best summed up by Mr? Johnson's closing remark, "It just goes to show what
can slice between the stools when you are not looking."
JAMES A. CUNNING, JR.
Assistant Chief
I D-DD/P
Attachment
U. N. Resolution
Distribution:
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WD-/P : JACunningham, Jr. /mg
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