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August 18 1960 100 miles above earth a secret racing space has started. Corona. America's first photographic spy satellite has just been deployed. The capsule was packed with over a 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 . The seller would be taking pictures . And I am parachute would open . And they'd go to all this trouble of capturing this capsule is coming back down to earth . Aircraft with Russia from Hawaii where they're capturing it to Washington where they're developing the film and then they put on these big light tables .

And I look at these pictures and where they have their pictures of the tops of clouds. It was the nuclear missile bases under those clouds. The Corona was supposed to find the smartest engineers the CIA could find. I'd gotten it off the ground. 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 . The argument was that we had a memo. Or. He would. Have. More flexibility and judgment in looking. At areas of interest and spying was just one possibility. One of the more amazing documents that we got was this list of experiments. Among those were going up there and capturing the Russian satellite. Maybe knocking a Russian satellite out of orbit or completely destroying a Russian satellite .

But the risk of launching astronauts on covert missions to space was enormous. Any attempt had to be kept completely secret . Only a handful of people know what really happened. You just couldn't tell anybody better. Nobody. I didn't tell my wife anything. I want to know how to. Program is still classified. Nobody's ever told us it wasn't . Up next. On over. A space story you never see. The story of the last transpires . Funding for no fly is provided by the following. I've been growing algae for 35 years most of which I get rid of algae were trying to grow

algae is very beautiful. They come in blue or red gold and green algae could be converted into biofuels that we could someday run our cars off and using algae to form bio fuels. We're not competing with the food supply. They absorb CO2 so they help solve the greenhouse problem as well. We're making a big commitment to finding out just how much else you can help to me to chill demands of the world. And BP coping. And. Is Governor . And by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and viewers like you. Thank you. May Day 1960 the height of the Cold War. And 13

miles above the Soviet Union. All systems will go . The CIA's secret U-2 spy plane was on a mission to confirm an alarming intelligence to. A new Soviet nuclear missile base close to the Arctic was about to become operational. So this made the White House very nervous. It was in a position where it could launch missiles over the North Pole which was the shortest route from by ship to the United States. The YouTube cameras were technological marvels but the key to the U2 success was the pilot's ability to find and photograph the best targets . The Soviets you know would threaten us when they could get away with it. So we needed to know where their technology was we needed to know what they were doing in the missile field. Where the silos were . What kind of missiles.

That YouTube's pilot was Francis Gary Powers . He thought if he flew above 60000 feet he should be safe. No Soviet anti-aircraft missiles could reach him. He was wrong. When Gary Powers was shot down the president said no more U-2 overflights So that would help the United States in a very bad position we had these Utusan we can fly over the Soviet Union. You don't want to cause a provocation and you don't want to be shot down. You know what's the answer. Well you go up into space . Launch Complex five six at Florida's take Canaveral is a monument to the early days of space exploration . Now a museum it was once NASA's command center for the launch of Alan Shepard

America's first man in space. In December 2004 NASA's Special Agent Dan Oakland was called over to the old block house to help solve a problem with trying to find some keys to a door that was closed for a good number of years. The lock was so old Oaklands office was the only one that still had the master key . There was no lights or anything. And we started looking around with flashlights buried back in the corner was a blue box inside the box he found something extraordinary. To spacesuits different from any NASA's space suits. Suits are in pretty good condition and they were just a little bit swell. There's one that was double 0 7 and then double the way they're just printed on the suits himself. And there was something else that seemed strange. There was a name tag that was actually on it

and sleeve and it just felt water. I've been following space NSV nice for a long time and after I heard the story of Dan Oakland and finding these faces I thought it was extremely interesting . For James Bamford an author and investigative reporter. That name a lawyer became a window into he. World. There was a small article about the Susan space website. And it was very curious because if you look at the list of Nassa astronaut's there's never been a NASA's astronaut name lawyer . But I did find the name lawyer Captain Richard a lawyer. On a list of pilots chosen to be part of the Air Force space program. 1060 . When I look closely at the program I realize I've been run by a secret agency inside the Pentagon. But I did manage to

get some documents. Much of the program even 40 years later is still officially secret. Lawyers name was on a list of 17 pilots who were chosen for the program . I managed to talk to them off camera about a month before he died . And the information he gave me helped me find one of the other pilots who are still alive. It's an impressive group. Some of the pilots Bamford found. Became space shuttle astronauts. Vice Admiral Richard truly even became the head of NASA's. Lieutenant General James Abrams and was put in charge of President Reagan's Star Wars program. Gen. Robert Harris would become vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. None of them has ever talked publicly about the secret the ties them all together . An Air Force program called Mobile. It's one of the great untold stories of the Cold War.

The story begins in January 1964 with a new group of America's best military pilots arriving at Edwards Air Force Base in California. They had been assigned to train at a place called the aerospace research pilot school. So I arrived at Edwards into what they. Didn't know a soul run by Chuck Yeager the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound. ARKES was a school where some military pilots with the right stuff. Were groomed to become astronauts in NASA's civilian space program . This year it was different. As we went through our student year and got toward the fall we realize that something funny was going on and the thing that was funny

going on was they were actually conducting a secret I guess you'd say crew selection. Without them knowing it they're actually competing with each other for this program . They're being watched him being evaluated by people to see who would make the best astronauts. Or the pros so secret was even kept from the potential astronaut some cells. Would fly in the morning. We would have classes in the afternoon and we'd study reduced data at night. They would teach you astronomy and flying mechanics orbital mechanics relationship of bodies that are in orbit or either around the earth or going to the mood. Stuff like that . For the students. It was more than just books and flying.

They were poked and prodded spun in centrifuges bounced in chairs and battered with psychological testing . And lo and behold they finally came out with a list . And I was on the list IMO. I almost fell over I had no idea . Then I had to go through a screening with a couple other guys to see where I would fit the previous height the limit had been six feet and I was almost six too. I was determined so I pulled that helmet down so tight I was almost dying and but I just barely made it. I think there were about a hundred people that started out and to survive down to. Eight or so it was made to feel pretty good . This was nineteen sixty four. Thousand nine hundred sixty four only Mercury had flown the Gemini astronauts were down at Nassau. And here we were going to get to fly in space even though it

was a. Military program. So we were sitting on the top of the ant hill. When they finally did tell the people that they selected but they only told them a cover story they didn't tell the real story about what they were being selected for when they told them was that they were just going to go up to space and do experiments. Unlike you TOS or spy satellites launching man into space just couldn't be kept secret. So a decision was made to call it a laboratory and to try hiding the project by putting it in plain sight. Ladies and gentlemen the president of the United States President Lyndon Johnson announced the program and gave it a plausible cover story something that Americans if not the Russians would possibly believe. Morning maiden gentlemen I am today instructing the pollen of plants that are made to proceed with the development of a man

of your blood. This program will bring us new knowledge about what man is able to do in space. The cover story was that the Manned Orbiting Laboratory or mole would be a space station crew with two military astronauts for 30 day missions . During that time they'd perform routine experiments on themselves and test their ability to do military tasks in space. There was no mention of an operational mission nor any hint of espionage . The cost of developing the Manned of $11 loving one billion five hundred million dollars. It took three more months until the crew was finally told that their real mission . And that day really was an amazing day. We got briefed him to the program as to what it was about.

The mold was actually an orbital spy station equipped with a camera the size of a car. It would fly in orbit that would give maximum coverage to Russian targets and the crew were no longer going to be astronauts. They were going to be Astro spines. And essence are going to be the successors to Francis Gary Powers. Basically they're going to be the people. Who are going to be flying over Russia now. I think everybody was tickled. I mean it was something that we really thought would contribute. We were going to go check the African Blue Frog who worked under zero gravity can you know where we were going to do something worthwhile. OK that we thought was worthwhile before I was going to go play was something I won really impressed by that. But now we were going to take pictures and the argument was

that if we had a man up there. He would have. More. Flexibility and judgment. The plan was to launch a two man Gemini capsule atop a 56 foot long laboratory module in orbit. The crew would unlock a hatch cut into the capsules heat shield. And crawl through a narrow tunnel into the pressurized crew compartment inside . As seen in this newly discovered government film The Astra spies could look through a viewport and observe and photograph high priority targets in Russia and elsewhere. When the 30 day mission was completed. The Astra spies would return to Earth in the Gemini capsule. Leaving the laboratory module to d orbit and burn up in the atmosphere. With their highly classified mission in hand the Astra spies disappeared

into a hidden were. The only people you could really communicate with about what you're actually doing or people within the program office. When we traveled we didn't identify ourselves as crew members or anything else. And I think once in a great while we traveled that identified us as somebody else. We didn't go around tell everybody knock on everybody door and say hey I was an afterthought although we did have a joke in the program that one day there was going to be a little article back on page 50 of the newspaper that said on a den of FIDE spacecraft launch from an unidentified launch pad with astronauts to do an unidentified mission. That's the way it was . But despite the carefully crafted cover stories despite all the safeguards half a world away the Russians were carefully watching and listening .

They didn't believe a word . That's some information. Closed channels with her though so sees these guys in Russia were smart they could look at all they could see for the general system's layout . And they could tell you of all this December something much more serious than simply a flight military experimentation. Russia has been surrounded by a network of American nuclear missile bases and we needed information on the location of these bases reconnaissance and all the space was absolute Can this a civilian that exist 11 people using the phrase a program of help potential targets could be identified indicators it's housing on this project it was. The Russian Almaz means a diamond in the rough Almaz was the code name for the Soviet spy ship a code name that could never be spoken. Almost was a state secret . A spacecraft the Soviets hoped would war.

Aircon mall at the least it's not just a satellite or a spaceship it's a whole complex the whole systems that consisted of a number of elements its overall weight was about 20 donuts. We're talking about two massive. You know 20 time. Space ships and space dock to each other cause when I was photographing the earth . Perhaps even doing some sort of battle simulations . And it wasn't just going to be bigger. It was meant to be better. Unlike the mall. On Mars was designed to stay in orbit for years at a time supply ships would ferry cosmonauts and equipment back and forth on a regular basis . Said let's just say use the Soviet Union at that time it was a fad and in many ways the first satellite the had the first baseman Selwood believed we were ahead of everybody. Almas and mold were in some sense kind of the shadow space race it was the one without the parades.

It's hard to remember the sense of conflict. Russians were the enemy. They really were. And the game became we need to beat the Russians into space . During the heart of the Cold War we thought of this big Russian bear as being all powerful and all knowing. And I was always afraid to tell you were ahead of us quite a bit. You can see the timelines of these two programs and they were very much. Closely . Hidden from view an intensive training program began. Mole crew members begin simulating life in zero gravity

. We did some of the work in zero g airplanes . Particularly learning how to crawl through that hatch in the chimney. The one task the Astro spies simulated over and over was one of the most basic going back and forth through the hatch a narrow tunnel that connected the Gemini capsule to the laboratory module runaway door back into the Gemini through this really awkward tunnel. Now as we progressed on the probe. We got. Better at what we were doing . In an eerie parallel world cars Minot's were practicing exactly the same maneuvers in Russian airplanes. Not as good. There was no exchange of information between the Americans and the Soviets. We were thinking in the same direction. But you also have a special link in the main unit called that little station two three

tone caps. To simulate life on board the Almaz. Russian designers built underwater tanks with a mock up of the space ship . Their planners had more time to study complicated maneuvers like loading film capsules into the station . Half a world away. The Americans had developed the same solution former Test Pilot Bud Evans was put in charge of designing the underwater training program in the airplane. When you reach zero G. And you had maybe. 40 to 40 seconds to maybe a minute 15 seconds in the most. So you really didn't get a timeline on how long it would take somebody to do a task. And then following that we went full bore off simulating me. Last night's task underwater. They created an undersea training facility off duck island in the

Caribbean. Underwater they dropped this very large mock up of a mall's face crap. In film that has never been shown publicly before. You can see most crew members first putting on scuba gear then donning their full space suits. It was very similar to what it would be in space with cutting out some of the gravity when you're getting overwhelmed with a more complete mockup. When the mold crew members practiced more mission critical tasks like simulating how to move the packages of exposed film back through the narrow tunnel into the Gemini capsule we had to know how long these tasks were going to take. This was one way to get some real time wind studies while both the astronauts and cosmonauts were training for reconnaissance

military planners saw orbiting spy stations. I was just a first step. Any nation sufficiently advanced in space technology can convert a vehicle into a military spacecraft to deny the use of space for the free world. A 1963 Air Force briefing film titled Space and national security depicted space as a battlefield. And showed just how far the military thought that battlefield might extend in the 60s this was a time of big thinking on both sides . The Russians were really thinking grand and were talking multiple battle stations in Earth orbit reconnaissance stations a manned by dozens and dozens of cosmonauts. One of the more amazing dynamism we got was this list of experiments that were

going to be used on the mall. Among those were things have been considered outrageous today. Going up there and capturing or stealing Russian satellite. Going up there maybe knocking a Russian satellite out of orbit. Or completely destroying a Russian satellite. We're still three people off cos we did trail lies that the Americans try to develop that satellite come to Cyprus and kill or settlers . So we decided to develop a special Canada that was placed on the station. We just wanted to test it and see how to work in outer space. If somebody wanted to inspect Pavan at Baghdad almost We could destroy those got us there in Naples. But first engineers and designers from both sides had to contend with some fundamental laws of physics so that Astro spies could monitor enemy

territory from 100 miles in space. It's a mystery to most people who haven't flown an orbit or what it's like trying to look at the ground as it's going by when you're going you know. 18000 miles an hour. Just looking out the window with no or the equivalent of 20 20 vision you could see tankers. Oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. They looked about that beat you. You can see an inch model without magnification . The magnification system developed from all was the state of the art and optical engineering. The camera system an optics an advanced set of folded mirrors tucked into the station were so far ahead of their time that a nearly identical configuration is still in use today . So if you picture a Hubble Space Telescope this huge bust size

telescope in space plane out of the stars. If you just turned around and pointed towards Earth that would be the cage 11. We have very high resolution for photo analysts. It is all a question of resolution. The higher the resolution the smaller the object you can see on the ground. Extraordinarily the mole's camera was designed to spot objects as small as three inches. The three inch resolution was pretty critical to providing our people with the technical lead tales of what the threat was and what the capability was the goal of people who do reconnaissance has always been to get the highest resolution but it's a trade off tighter you get the picture the better resolution you get but the less coverage you get what you really need is to be able to look at a big scene and sell their stuff mentioning I really need to look at over there .

Inside a mole training simulator joysticks could zoom the lens both in and out and from side to side a wide angle view finder could spot targets at the very edge we had. I'll take all my pieces to read through with ways to point the line aside and they had simulated photographs simulated to give you something to work at. Test your beverage to zero in on a point of interest or gray and accurately. The camera system was a huge engineering challenge. It required great precision while the target was in motion. The station was orbiting over the poles . They're trying to take a picture of something on Earth as the earth is going around on its axis at a thousand miles an hour and they themselves are traveling around the Earth is seventeen thousand five hundred miles an hour. It was an extremely difficult scientific task to try to create it. A camera system that could take a very accurate picture knowing that everything is moving at a different relationship to each other

in both countries. Engineers struggled to create rudimentary motion tracking systems. Most of them regularly had other devices for that kind of sums but we needed to create a control system they could fix the camera on the targets avoid blur on all my eyes. They had a particular instrument which would basically freeze the image. They would actually have the camera move and compensate for the angular distance between a particular point so its almost was flying over the camera would sort of shift slowly to keep its sights on a particular territory. Moles tracking and targeting system was computerized but computing was still in its infancy. In fact today's standards a really crude. They were IBM for pies . I don't think they had 50000 words of storage and you could actually go to IBM actually went there and watched. Believe it or not these ladies sit near string in these little magnetic cores on these wires to form

the memory of this thing. You've got more on your cell phone probably than they had in those computers. But we're getting computers and tracking systems more. What made the most extraordinary and the difference between the M.O. our on our unmanned system is that there's a system with. People in it. People are you know hands on in the spacecraft banking decisions and adjusting it and so for the staff . You have to ask yourself the question I'm investing an enormous amount of resources to maintain a crew up in space. Now what they can provide is a real time analysis of the targets. They can look at something they can say well this is something interesting and we should be able to we should find out more about this. But is it worth that amount of resources to have a crew . Just tell you that.

The Mole program to put human beings in orbit was going to cost more money . Because everything had to be manned rated and had to be safety features. It's extra weight to mange the vehicle has to be bigger. It has to have more fuel. It just adds cost everywhere along the line in a well was a very expensive program it seems like chicken feed today was a I think it was a three billion dollar program. But in the 1960s there was a lot of money . Think back in the mid to late 60s Johnson was the president . He was trying to fund all the great society programs he was trying to fund the expansion of the war in Vietnam. He was trying to fund going to the moon on Apollo and here we were. And we. Would take a cut basically every year and we used to jokingly tell ourselves that the only thing that remained constant on the program was a number of days till a first launch.

The scheduled launch date for the first moment was August 1070 . The Russians planned to launch Almaz that April to commemorate Lenin's 1 100th birthday. But in November 1966 the American seemed poised to make a huge leap forward. At Cape Canaveral a unique rocket configuration was rolled out to the launch pad . Atop the standard Titan 3 C solid rocket boosters was a hollow mockup of the mole laboratory and atop that workers attached an unmanned Gemini capsule designers needed to test whether the Geminis heat shield would still work after the mole's access hatch had been cut into it. Unlike most Nassa launches there were no astronauts on display. You know the NASA's astronauts back in the 60s were all good friends of

of ours. We knew them. We went to Houston and when we went to Houston they'd tell us all about what they were doing and we wouldn't tell them anything about what we were doing if we were different. That's all we were. You know we were on the cover of LIFE magazine we were driving Corvettes we were you know just doing different things. At 8:50 on November 3rd the whole program literally got off the ground . Just over 100 miles in space. The unmanned capsule was ejected . U.S. Navy ships recovered it fifty five hundred miles out in the Atlantic . The capsule was intact . And prove.

The pilots could survive re-entry. But surviving their training program. Was another question. Major Robert Lawrence was one of the final crewmembers chosen from all. He was one of the Air Force's best pilots. He had a Ph.D. in chemistry and he was the first African-American selected to be an astronaut. Why was such an excellent pilot that that idea of him have an accident. It really it never entered my mind . They were doing a simulated shuttle approaching an EF 1 0 4 which was a very difficult maneuver. I think hard warrior was flying the airplane. He just misjudged the second and the next. That's all you had. And I think they guide our Career Out to the right. I actually hit the ground hard bounced in the air and as I understand they are primed for you managed to get their both ejected. Or you survive the

ejection and Bob didn't . I was standing at home changing the buttons on a dress. I looked out the window and saw Bob Herries coming up the walk . I thought I don't have to ask . Myself what they call a life changing experience you know and suddenly you know in the morning everything seems OK and then a few minutes later. It's all over. That morning I wanted to change his flight you want me to fly him in his place on that particular flight . That's about all arrests. I should've been in the backseat of that airplane instead of you

Yanks and served to make us realize that we really were a very small group and we had a big problem and that meant lots of training and that we expanded our efforts and increased our efforts . By the beginning of 1969. The Secret Race between Russia and the US to launch the first spine's into space seem to be neck and neck. Both sides had made significant advances but they were both years behind schedule. With all that in the Commons you know to me they would be able to launch the space station into orbit was still a program fell behind by three years. For the first time I know I personally would begin to believe I believe this can work. Well some of them might have been a bit worried about what the Russians were doing at this point

but they really didn't know I was at the competition was less with the Russians than it was within their own government. Right around the corner from them was another agency called the NRO the National Reconnaissance Office the National Reconnaissance Office was extremely secret during the 1960s matter fact even its name wasn't declassified until the early 90s. Their job was to the Sitra to find a way to put satellites up there they could get the very same resolution. They were going to develop a competitive system in the CIA back that. Larry stance who had worked at NRO and later helped plan the mole was one of the few people with the security clearance for both programs. Both systems were. Aimed at developing three inch technical resolution. From a technical point of view they kind of wound

up in a dead heat. We were aware that there were unmanned reconnaissance satellites with terrain impressive capability on the drawing board. You know there's the end man guys that said you know we don't need you. And then there's the man guys that say well you can't live without us. It was obvious to me the first time I went to a place where the unmanned system was being run. They didn't want any part of us and somebody much bigger than him told them to let us in to see it. Unknown to the mole crew the secretary of the Air Force went to the White House to make a last minute plea to President Nixon. And the mole's future hung in the balance . Frank Hartsfield. The morning of Tuesday June 10th

1969 was like any other. I jumped in my little MJ and as usual I had a little plug in a list of in local news and. Was happily driving down for five . Hours. They came the other night. This morning the manned barbering laboratory has been canceled by the Department of Defense . The talents of those two news stations just wish the other was safe to store data different it wasn't I was in a meeting arguing with an engineer and I felt this tap on my shoulder and I looked around and knew it was Mac and I looked in his eyes and he said real low. Nobody else in the room heard him he said the program is cancelled and I turn around to this engineer that I was arguing with and I'd my mind was blank. I didn't know what would been talking about.

What happens to the fourth day has been us now been training for like three missions. Well I'll find I'm sure probably to find myself where there are a good bunch of boys and I'm sure they'll have many opportunities to use as experience and for that matter their careers. Thank you. The end of the MO program turned out to be as low key as it's beginning . Six weeks later the world focused on man's role in space. But they were watching the year Armstrong stepped foot on the moon . Either. Right there you . Know the world was unified at that point. And I think everybody was happy that a human being had landed on another planet . By the same token I would say that I still cry and 9 a little bit about not getting to go .

Americans are just landing on the moon in 1969 which was probably the greatest event in the history of space exploration so far. The Russians had completely been upstaged. They'd lost the moon race. So Dimitrios a knob who's basically the effective head of the Soviet space program demands something to respond to this . This is what the Russians came up with. This is the spy station called the Home Office. 13 years in the making. The sole remaining capsule is locked away in a warehouse on the outskirts of Moscow. It is a closed facility a place foreigners are still denied access . Novas cameras were allowed inside but only with a Russian camera crew. The Omas capsule was divided in three sections. One section was the crew quarters a rudimentary bed a table where cosmonauts could sit and prepare food. A time to sip water from

. Another section was mainly taken up with the censors. Largest among them the camera weighing more than two tongues with six meter mirrors folded inside. And in the middle. The operations module. Where Astro spies could zoom down to almost any point on Earth. To show them where they were. A simple globe that depicted their point in orbit. A screen they could look at that showed them a 100 kilometer panorama of the world below in front of that screen of view finder. They could zoom in to 100 meters. Being a good Tory we could see details that will huff a meter long the from two hundred and fifty kilometers in the space of. Words. We could see the make go to car if it's a Ford with Iowa to talk to you all . The entire station was gyroscopic the control designed to pivot

as it passed over its target so that when the shutter was triggered the pictures would be blurred and on the outside of the station. A first for manned space flight. A weapon a 23 millimeter cannon that could fire on an enemy satellite that might be flying too close for comfort . In June 1974 all of this was loaded on top of a giant proton rocket and rolled out to the Baikonur launch site. The almost capsule was covered with a shroud. So American reconnaissance satellites couldn't photograph it. Nine days later Colonel Pawel Popovich and his flight engineer Lieutenant Colonel Yuri our toucan were launched into space to dark with the Arma station there with the first Astro spies to orbit the

earth. Their mission lasted 15 days . So I guess the museum was a gallery Romanoff is a cosmonaut con trained on the almost program in the 1970s. Inside the command center he demonstrates how Popov the transmission worked whether it was just in threes outsing these are the synchronization Ehlers by pushing the button we could switch on the camera . But the process itself went like this. Well here is the panoramic screen what I can see the ground beneath the station. I didn't pull got any of them this is how I assume in just a few so for example I'm flying over the ocean and I spot a warship. I can see it's going a little bit to the right. So I can rotate the station little to keep watching it in the field. One two three and I have a picture . We have this special system to develop the film. You turned off all the stations lives

. And in complete darkness you put the film in the developer then moved out the projection table to fix the exposed film at least you know then you can select the most interesting parts and transmitted back to earth with a video camera. I'm . So about an hour after you took a picture of people on earth could be studying it . We got. Now let me show you the periscope and how it could protect you from attack. You know. What it is but if you look through here you can see outside the station. And what's happening around Ground Control can tell me something is going on. Here something is approaching and that might be a killer satellite that . We have the middle man kind of right below the station's belly . So I tried to rotate the station to face the object head on. Did you.

Invent. Feeding the command to fire. A bullet. Fortunately that never happened. We will afraid of what would happen to the station if by the Kennett Saul we never tested it with a man on board. But after the crew left we fired the cannon by remote control and the station some bribed and liberation . Subsequent missions to be almost seem star crossed. On two missions cosmonauts failed to dock with the spy station and returned to earth empty handed. On the third attempt to reach all Mars things got worse. The Khans Minox docked successfully and entered the Almaz. But on their forty second day in orbit. As they passed over the dark side of Earth the station's electrical system suddenly shutdown. Alarms sounded and the station was plunged into darkness . Out of radio contact and drifting in space the

cosmonauts struggled for two hours to bring the craft back to life. When power was restored the frailty of man in space became clear . The flight engineer suffered a breakdown and began experiencing audio hallucinations. Whoa. No medicine on board. Good health . Six days later. The cosmonauts were ordered back to Earth. Going to. In February 1977. Victor go Bacco a Soviet Air Force colonel was the last pilot to command his mission was almost flawless. Cordesman when we flew over the United States New York I looked down in the need of it. We could see human beings on the streets. I would say they could see objects above the wind meter

inside. But it was evident I had enough time to call the place on the ground. Wonder if the old military bases would just have to shoot film off the new weapons if we could spot that was about all we had to do. Circling the Earth every 90 minutes. He said the all must orbit was useful not only for spying on the US but also on its allies. If I got that all man assignment would I get system was to film ships and planes on the other side and there were some military tension in Israel's soul which had to count how many planes they had to Colonel go back go there was a big difference between space espionage and Space Wars. Each of us and my mission has a peaceful character we didn't shoot we just took Beatrice saw we were spaced spies that's a big with a title for a lawyer. But far below in Moscow senior Kremlin officials were asking the same question their American counterparts asked eight years before.

Was this really worth the effort and the risk here was that the Russians probably felt that they won. But in the end it was a hollow victory because they are basically coming to the same conclusion. It just took about a decade longer on February 25th 1977 at nine twenty one a.m. Moscow time. Colonel undocked from Mars descended toward central concepts. He and his partner would be the last straw spikes. After 13 years of extraordinary effort by scientists from both sides with billions of rubles and billions of dollars spent only five missions have been launched by the Russians and just two of those were deemed a success. For all the effort Astro spies had managed just 81

days in orbit. In the end it came down to a competition of man against machine and machine gun store. Absolutely I think it was a premature decision to close down the program then seize the space station the Delta pilots are more efficient. I would say is that is wrong. I thought it was a good program. I think we could have done something really worthwhile. It was. Aborted prematurely as far as we were concerned. I think it was possible I think I'd like to think and I believe I'm correct that we have positive influence on the way things we would be going in the future two months before the last Russian cosmonaut left the Alma's America's National Reconnaissance Office successfully launched its first k h 11 unmanned spy satellite said to be capable of capturing images with three inch resolution. But using video sensors instead of

film. This was the Digital Age of espionage . This was what had rendered America's Astra spies obsolete before they ever flew. 30 years later. Dozens of unmanned satellites silently monitor the world below. They are also the Castro spies legacy. When I look back at what we did on Lol we didn't. Far as I know. Well something that has led to another man's system. I think that the work we do and . Help provide data. For future systems . Is to give just yesterday I went to the Google search engine when I could actually see my own house. Thirty years ago I would have sold 5 would be able to see something like that

. On Nova's Astra spies website here from the astronauts of the mole program. See spy photos that made history and more find it on PBS daughter. On Nova the Parthenon revered icon of Western civilization a powerful statement of what human beings are capable . How did the ancients build very simply I think genius like . Nova uncovers clues trapped in stone. Realize that any of the. Secrets of the Parthenon . Next time. Are No . Major funding for Nova is provided by the following. Natural gas as a cleaner burning fuel. Yet a lot of natural gas has impurities like CO2 in it controlled free zone is a new technology being developed by ExxonMobil to

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