USAF C-130 Photos

Fourteen US Air Force C-130Bs were modified in 1959 for a variety of test programs including midair retrieval of film canisters ejected from Discoverer satellites. Discoverer was the cover name of the CIA’s Corona reconnaissance satellite program. This image shows a JC-130B (Air Force serial number 57-0528) with the recovery gear deployed from the cargo ramp about to snag a canister during a training mission over Edwards AFB, California, in July 1969. The capsule and parachute would be dropped from another aircraft at 30,000 feet while the JC-130B crew waited at an altitude of about 18,000 feet. Crews from the 6595th Test Squadron at Hickam AFB, Hawaii, carried out the actual recoveries under a program called Catch A Falling Star. [Lockheed photo]