[XEHRpa]

Here’s the original reentry heat shield story from the 1st object recovered from orbit: Discoverer XIII (aka CORONA) in 1960:

http://drexel.edu/mem/news/archive/2012-07-19%20It%20was%20a%20Great%20Time%20to%20be%20an%20Engineer/

http://www.berksmontnews.com/article/BM/20120509/NEWS01/305099999

http://www.nro.gov/history/csnr/corona/Intel_Revolution_Web.pdf

[corkoman]

Thanks for the links! The Corona project is fascinating.