AstroSpies (1 of 22)

AstroSpies

Millions remember the countdowns, launchings, splashdowns, and parades as the U.S. raced the USSR to the moon in the 1960s. But few know that both countries also ran parallel space programs, whose covert goal was to launch military astronauts on spying missions. In this program, NOVA delves into the untold story of this top-secret space race, which might easily have turned into a shooting war in orbit.

NARRATOR:August 18, 1960.
100 miles above Earth, a secret race in space has started.
Corona, America's first photographic spy satellite, has just been deployed.
The capsule was packed with over half a mile of film.

The camera could capture images of objects as small as a truck on Russian territory-- at least on a clear day.
JAMES BAMFORD: The satellite would be taking pictures...
A parachute would open...
and they'd go to all this trouble of capturing this capsule as it was coming back down to Earth.
Aircraft would rush it from Hawaii, where they're capturing it, to Washington, where they're developing the film, and then they put it on these big light tables.
And they look at these pictures, and what do they have?
They have pictures of the tops of clouds.
NARRATOR: It was the nuclear missile bases under those clouds that Corona was supposed to find.
The smartest engineers the CIA could find had gotten it off the ground.
On my mark...
NARRATOR: But in space, it was missing a human touch.
Some thought it could never work without a human at the controls, without a finger on the shutter.
LAWRENCE SKANTZE: The argument was that if we had a man up there, he would have more flexibility and judgment in looking at areas of interest.