Declassified: The Top-Secret Satellites That Took Electronic Spying to the Battlefield
The top secret URSALA, RAQUEL, and FARRAH satellites
For over 40 years, the NRO launched suitcase-sized ELINT satellites with code names like URSALA, RAQUEL, and FARRAH. Hitchhiking on larger photo-reconnaissance satellites, they evolved from chasing Soviet radars to delivering tactical electronic intelligence directly to commanders in the field. Newly declassified documents reveal how these tiny spacecraft brought the wizard war of space-based spying to the warfighter.
“Back in the early 1970’s the new mission was to get data directly to the commander on the FEBA (Forward Edge of the Battle Area). I had a payload with possibilities if it could be ‘trailerized.’ We decided to go for it but needed a catchy name, so we used DRACULA…Direct Readout and Collection ULA (‘ULA’ was the three-letter shorthand for the URSALA payload).”