GRAB Satellite Declassified - NRL Built and Deployed First Reconnaissance Satellite System.
GRAB, or Galactic Radiation and Background Satellite was the world’s first intelligence satellite, designed to collect Soviet air defense radar signals.
Watch this historical video by the National Reconnaissance Office with former Naval Center for Space Technology director, Pete Wilhelm.
A U.S. Navy electronic intelligence (ELINT) satellite system became operational in July 1960 and was operated until August 1962.
The heretofore classified mission was to obtain information on Soviet air defense radars that could not be observed by Air Force and Navy ferret aircraft flying ELINT missions along accessible borders in Europe and the western Pacific.