Produced by: Tarun Mishra Designed by: Manoj Kumar
During the late 1950s and into the 1960s, the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union intensified. This rivalry was marked by both superpowers competing to demonstrate their technological and military capabilities.
On September 13, 1959, the Soviet Union achieved a significant milestone with the Luna 2 mission, successfully crashing a spacecraft onto the Moon and placing metallic pennants with the U.S.S.R.'s coat of arms on the lunar surface.
Credit : NASA
In 1959, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) conducted a covert operation to gain insight into Soviet space technology. The CIA targeted a Soviet exhibit showcasing a Luna 2 model to understand the Soviet space technology.
The CIA team dismantled the exhibit overnight, photographing and documenting the spacecraft's components without alerting the Soviet authorities. The operation involved dismantling a fully operational model comparable to the Luna 2.
The operation was detailed in a historical review by the CIA, declassified and publicly released in 1995. This account described the mission as a stealthy and successful intelligence operation.
The story of the CIA's mission, dubbed “The Kidnapping of the Lunik,” was first reported by space historian Dwayne Day in the mid-1990s. The declassified document was initially available in paper form and later digitized.
In June 2020, John Greenewald published the non-sanitized document, revealing detailed factory markings inside the Soviet upper-stage vehicle. This analysis identified the producer of the Lunik stage and provided insights into its components.
The operation faced practical challenges, including difficulties in reassembling the spacecraft. The CIA team encountered problems with the intricate design of the probe, which complicated the reassembly process.
The CIA’s successful operation is highlighted as a notable example of cooperation between covert operators and overt collectors. It demonstrated the effectiveness of using intelligence methods to gain insights into rival technological capabilities.