I think you're talking about the old Corona satellites, where they would have film and drop it back to earth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_(satellite) h

I think you're talking about the old Corona satellites, where they would have film and drop it back to earth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_(satellite) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_(satellite) The problem with this and a fairing is that if the fairing catches the open side, it's going to drag behind like a giant parachute and take the plane down. The fairing is huge (13m long x 5m diameter), even compared to a big plane.