Zirconic was a National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) codename for a program established under the Presidency of Ronald Reagan to develop reconnaissance satellites equipped with stealth technology. Zirconic operated as a sensitive compartmented information program and included the Misty spacecraft, designed to reduce radar, visible, infrared, and laser signatures. Access to related classified material required a dedicated "Zirconic clearance", and the program's development effort was internally codenamed Nebula.

Misty deployments began in 1990, when Misty 1 launched aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis and was deployed over the side rather than through a conventional payload bay ejection; amateur observers nevertheless tracked it within months. Misty 2 followed in 1999 on a Titan IV-B rocket, during which observers noted the release of a high-altitude decoy intended to obscure the true payload's orbit.

By the early 2000s, Zirconic had become one of the largest single line items in the U.S. intelligence budget, with Misty's development costs rising from US$5 billion to more than US$9 billion by 2004. The program drew scrutiny from the numerous United States Congress committees over the effectiveness of the program. Critics argued that extreme secrecy enabled unchecked spending and limited transparency. Supporters maintained that stealth capability provided unique intelligence advantages in situations where adversaries believed no satellites were overhead.

Early in the Cold War, the United States (U.S.) attempted to monitor the Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal build-up. Particular concerns were the production numbers, deployment site locations, and missile capabilities. Initially, the U.S. used U-2 spy planes taking pictures on the ground for later analysis. However, the Soviets developed countermeasures and on May 1, 1960, a U-2 plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile with its pilot, Francis Gary Powers, being captured. The U-2 incident ended the flights over the Soviet Union.

Around the same time, the U.S. was developing a satellite program, named CORONA, that eventually replaced the U-2 program and extended the list of targeted countries, such as China and Cuba. The first test took place on February 28, 1959, in Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. After several attempts, on August 18, 1960, the first successful satellite overflew the Soviet Union seven times and the satellite's film-return capsule was ejected and picked up near Hawaii. The CORONA satellites were replaced by the improved KH-8 Gambit 3 satellites, which operated from 1963 until 1984. The NRO considered stealth reconnaissance satellites as early as 1963; at the time, this was based on the assumption of continuing data collection efforts even if challenged by "an intense Soviet effort" to limit orbital photography coverage of their assets.

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was developing anti-satellite weapons without public announcement. The first anti-satellite technologies were developed during the cold war, with the Soviet Istrebitel Sputnikov programme and the American SAINT. A 1983 Department of Defense report noted that Soviet anti-satellite systems were operational and capable of targeting U.S. spacecraft in low Earth orbit, reinforcing the rationale for a stealth imaging platform. Known types of anti-satellite weapons include high-altitude nuclear weapons and various aircraft, naval, and surface-launched missiles. On May 29, 1985, Colonel General Nikolai Chervov of the Soviet General Staff stated in an interview with a West German reporter that the Soviet Union had developed a direct ascent satellite interceptor aircraft. In 1994, Teledyne Industries received a patent for a "satellite signature suppression shield" designed to reduce a spacecraft's laser, radar, visible, and infrared signatures.

The Zirconic compartment was established under the Ronald Reagan administration within the Byeman Control System. The development effort was internally codenamed Nebula, and access to the related information was restricted to individuals granted "Zirconic clearance". Writing for European Security & Defence, Douglas Richardson noted the involvement of Edward Mills Purcell in Zirconic and earlier Corona programs "to make these vehicles, if not invisible to radar, hard to observe with radar." Analysts also observed that the Space-Based Infrared System, the Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications network, and the optical and radar components of the Future Imagery Architecture experienced comparable cost growth during the same period. According to the Washington Post, Lockheed Martin served as a lead contractor on Zirconic.

Jeffrey T. Richelson first disclosed the Zirconic program in his 2002 book, The Wizards of Langley: Inside the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology. The program entered wider public awareness in December 2004, when the Washington Post and New York Times reported on it. In late 2004, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to terminate Zirconic, but the program continued due to the support of the House Intelligence Committee and both the House Appropriations Committee and Senate Appropriations Committee. On June 21, 2007, the Associated Press reported that Director of National Intelligence John Michael McConnell had cancelled the Misty program. A spokesperson for McConnell confirmed that McConnell has the authority to cancel projects, but declined to comment further.