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This is generally correct, although I would quibble on the details a bit.For one thing, the PERCHERON proposal was only for the spacecraft and not the camera system. The declassified documents show other cameras inside that General Electric OCV. Also, keep in mind that PERCHERON was proposed by GE. NASA was not pushing for it. So NRO officials got mad at GE, but apparently not mad at NASA. Maybe they were a bit annoyed because they thought NASA was encouraging this behavior, but the available documents do not indicate that.The "Earth-orbit-Apollo UPWARD" is better referred to as the "Mapping and Survey System" (having started out as the Lunar Mapping and Survey System). And the proposal was to attach it to what became Skylab. So it was not going to be an Apollo CSM flying in low Earth orbit with the system attached, it would be hooked up to a space station. That concept evolved over time. Initially, the plan was only to test it in Earth orbit, with the plan of only using it around the Moon. But NASA people became enamored with the idea of having such a powerful camera of their own, so even after the lunar portion was canceled, they thought it would be neat to have this in Earth orbit. That is what annoyed NRO, because it was still classified hardware, and if NASA operated it, people would start asking questions that NRO did not want asked.
This is generally correct, although I would quibble on the details a bit.
For one thing, the PERCHERON proposal was only for the spacecraft and not the camera system. The declassified documents show other cameras inside that General Electric OCV. Also, keep in mind that PERCHERON was proposed by GE. NASA was not pushing for it. So NRO officials got mad at GE, but apparently not mad at NASA. Maybe they were a bit annoyed because they thought NASA was encouraging this behavior, but the available documents do not indicate that.
The "Earth-orbit-Apollo UPWARD" is better referred to as the "Mapping and Survey System" (having started out as the Lunar Mapping and Survey System). And the proposal was to attach it to what became Skylab. So it was not going to be an Apollo CSM flying in low Earth orbit with the system attached, it would be hooked up to a space station. That concept evolved over time. Initially, the plan was only to test it in Earth orbit, with the plan of only using it around the Moon. But NASA people became enamored with the idea of having such a powerful camera of their own, so even after the lunar portion was canceled, they thought it would be neat to have this in Earth orbit. That is what annoyed NRO, because it was still classified hardware, and if NASA operated it, people would start asking questions that NRO did not want asked.
