GoKawiilDeclassified files reveal Cold War-era URSALA, RAQUEL, FARRAH spy satellites
Newly declassified documents detail a secretive US Air Force and National Reconnaissance Office program that launched small 'hitchhiker' satellites—codenamed URSALA, RAQUEL, FARRAH, GLORIA and CARRIE—starting in 1963. These suitcase-sized satellites rode alongside larger spacecraft, including the HEXAGON photo-reconnaissance satellites, and spun in orbit to collect electronic intelligence such as radar signals. Details about the program, including previously secret space shuttle payloads, have only been released in the past two months.