Spy Satellite You’ve Never Heard of Helped Win the Cold War

IN THE EARLY 1970S, the Cold War had reached a particularly frigid moment, and U.S. military and intelligence officials had a problem. The Soviet Navy was becoming a global maritime threat—and the United States did not have a global ocean-surveillance capability.

It would be up to a top-secret satellite program called Parcae to help keep the Cold War from suddenly toggling to hot. The engineers working on Parcae would have to build the most capable orbiting electronic intelligence system ever.