Editing Reconnaissance satellite (section)

==Benefits==
During the 1950s, a Soviet hoax had led to American fears of a [[bomber gap]]. In 1968, after gaining satellite photography, the United States' intelligence agencies were able to state with certainty that "No new [[ICBM]] complexes have been established in the USSR during the past year". President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] told a gathering in 1967:<ref name="heppenheimer1998">{{cite book |title = The Space Shuttle Decision |publisher = NASA |last = Heppenheimer |first = T. A. |author-link = T. A. Heppenheimer |year=1998 |url= https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4221/contents.htm |pages = 191, 198 }}</ref>

{{blockquote|I wouldn't want to be quoted on this ... We've spent $35 or $40 billion on the space program. And if nothing else had come out of it except the knowledge that we gained from space photography, it would be worth ten times what the whole program has cost. Because tonight we know how many missiles the enemy has and, it turned out, [[missile gap|our guesses were way off]]. We were doing things we didn't need to do. We were building things we didn't need to build. We were harboring fears we didn't need to harbor.}}

During his [[1980 State of the Union Address]], President [[Jimmy Carter]] argued that all of humanity benefited from the presence of American spy satellites:<ref>{{cite web|title=The State of the Union Annual Message to the Congress|url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/the-state-the-union-annual-message-the-congress-0|work=1980 State of the Union Address|publisher=The American Presidency Project|access-date=11 April 2014}}</ref>

{{blockquote|...photo-reconnaissance satellites, for example, are enormously important in stabilizing world affairs and thereby make a significant contribution to the security of all nations.}}

Reconnaissance satellites have been used to enforce human rights, through the [[Satellite Sentinel Project]], which monitors atrocities in [[Sudan]] and [[South Sudan]].

Additionally, companies such as [[GeoEye]] and [[DigitalGlobe]] have provided commercial satellite imagery in support of natural disaster response and humanitarian missions.<ref>{{cite web |title = Commercial Satellite Imagery Companies Partner with the U.S. Geological Survey in Support of the International Charter "Space and Major Disasters" |url = http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1647#.Uz81dlcvn84 |website = USGS Newsroom |publisher = [[United States Geological Survey]] |access-date=4 April 2014 }}</ref>