[todayiamme]

For me, one of the highlights of the era that conceived the skyhook was the CORONA program. The spy satellites in this early era would use film and, unlike their civilian counterparts, they didn't want to rely on a low resolution copy that had been transmitted to the ground. So they would shoot the canisters out, deorbit them, and then snatch them mid-air with a plane.

That's just insane from any reasonable perspective. I can't imagine how they made it work even once let alone dozens of times.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/CORONA_f...

[ranger207]

My grandfather piloted some of the CORONA recoveries, and was part of the group flying Fulton recoveries in Vietnam, although he says he never flew an operational mission in country. It's pretty cool to hear him talk about it.

Also, the Fulton system and the CORONA system were slightly different. The CORONA system required you to fly over the parachute, while the Fulton system had you fly into the line between the ground and the balloon. My grandfather says that the Fulton system was much easier to do for this reason.