After the U2 spy plane incident, the US started a program called Corona, using satellites with cameras instead of planes. The film was returned to the Earth in capsules called film buckets, designed to be captured by aircaft while descending on a parachute. After that, the cameras were useless. This is the inside of the film bucket:


I took this in the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center museum, in the space hangar. Inconveniently for photographers, the ceiling in that hangar is painted black, and some displays like this one are in plexiglass cases. I had my AF540FGZ so I put it on the top of the case and fired it wirelessly, taking care of the plexiglass reflections but not the item reflections.

[Canada_Rockies]

Expensive little thing. Will it fit in my LowePro Trekker?

[normhead]

That's a very interesting story.... but you left out the funny part.. where Fidel Castro joked that the women in Cuba couldn't sunbathe nude in their back yards anymore because of these satellites taking their pictures.

[RioRico]

Awesome device. And not built by Canon!

[mtansley]

Looking at that photo I'd say you did a good job with using the flash wirelessly.

Amazing how much some of these one use cameras cost. I always thought about the HD camcorder mounted on the external tank of the Space Shuttle system in latter years. Lovely images and then the whole thing burns up. Seems a waste in one way.