Richard Leghorn was a former United States Air Force (USAF) aerial reconnaissance expert who had first proposed flying reconnaissance missions over enemy territory in peacetime.
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In 1982 Litton Industries was attempting to diversify their military holdings, and engaged Lehman Brothers to arrange the purchase of a company specializing in electronic warfare.
The primary reconnaissance payload was an Itek panoramic camera, but in principle it could also carry infrared cameras or a SIGINT payload.
Itek |
Both Chief models were made and sold in Europe by Gestetner Cyclograph Company, and were also marketed in the United States by the Itek and Ditto corporations.
Originally developed at Itek on the PDP-1 as EDM (Electronic Drafting Machine), the efforts were purchased by Control Data Corporation and ported to their machines, along with a new graphics terminal to support it.
LMSC was awarded the contract for the Satellite Basic Assembly (SBA), Perkin Elmer for the primary Sensor Subsystem (SS), McDonnell for the Reentry Vehicle (RV), RCA Astro-Electronics Division for the Film Take Up system, and Itek for the Stellar Index camera (SI).
These include: Intel, Apple, AppNexus, StrataCom, Check Point Software, DoubleClick, 3Com Corporation, Mosaic, PGP, Itek, Digex, Media6Degrees, Smartling, Phoenix, Second Rotation (gazelle) and CTERA Networks.