How the CIA ‘kidnapped’ a Soviet moon probe during the space race

The space race between the United States and the former Soviet Union was in full swing in the late 1950s, and continued into the 1960s. This competition between two countries gave additional impetus to NASAJohn Kennedy’s determination to follow through on his promise to put a man on the moon.

Relations between the United States and the Soviet Union were undeniably tense, a superpower rivalry fueled by differences in political ideology and economic goals, with both nations striving to influence the world by showcasing their technological and military prowess.

The Soviet Union intended to crash a spaceship the moon – and at the same time, to achieve a political coup by dropping metal pennants with the weapons of the USSR on the lunar surface. On September 13, 1959, the Soviet Union achieved this goal with Luna 2.

Techniques and technologies

To better understand how the Soviet Union was building equipment for the Moon, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) conducted a secret spy mission on a Soviet exhibit in 1959.

A CIA task force has dismantled a “Lunik 2” exhibit documenting techniques and technologies used by the Soviet Union.

Years later, this secret act was detailed by the CIA and presented as a stealthy espionage operation carried out without the knowledge of the Soviet Union.

CIA’s unusual nighttime operation involved Soviet upper echelon space equipment that was being transported as part of an exhibition aimed at promoting Soviet industrial and economic achievements.

Related:The CIA knows a lot about other nations’ space programs. So do you, thanks to its new “World Factbook” update.

Unlimited access

According to an article published on the CIA’s “electronic reading room” website:

“A team of CIA agents was given unrestricted access to the display for 24 hours, which turned out not to be a replica but a fully operational system comparable to the Lunik 2.”

The team disassembled the vehicle, the message added, “photographed all the parts without removing it from its crate before putting everything back in place, thus gaining invaluable information on its design and capabilities.”

He concludes his message: “And the Soviets didn’t know anything about it. Does this sound like a movie script? It really happened.”

Sanitized version

The “Lunik abduction” was documented in a “sanitized” CIA historical study that was declassified and released in 1995. It was written by the CIA’s Sydney W. “Wes” Finer and published in the Winter 1967 issue of the agency’s “Studies in Intelligence.”

It was eagle-eyed space historian Dwayne Day who first published an article on the CIA’s impossible mission in Quest, the informative History of Spaceflight Quarterly, in the mid-1990s.

“I was the one who found the declassified document in the National Archives. It was in paper form. The document wasn’t put online until a decade or more later,” Day told Space.com. “Note that ‘Lunik’ is not a Russian word. It was an American slang term for Russian lunar missions, not what the Russians called them.”

Factory markings

More recently, in June 2020, John Greenewald, founder of the Black safeA two-million-plus-page archive obtained from the government under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) released the document in an unedited form that notes, as a subtitle: “Obtaining Factory Markings Inside a Soviet Upper-Stage Space Vehicle.”

These markings were later analyzed and detailed in a “Marking Center File” which revealed the probable identification of the Lunik stage’s manufacturer and that it was the fifth example manufactured. Also identified were three electrical manufacturers who supplied components, and even the part numbering system, likely used for other Soviet space equipment.

Humpty Dumpty

The CIA’s machinations against Lunik were not without circumstances of comic value.

Like Humpty Dumpty, trying to put things back together and then close the crate was one of many high-risk, but comical, outcomes.

“The first task, which was to place the orb back in its basket, proved to be the most delicate and time “This took part of the entire night’s work,” the document notes. Indeed, the way the nose and engine compartments were designed prevented any visual guidance for easily reassembling the space hardware.

“We spent nearly an hour on this project, with one man in the narrow part of the nose trying to get the orb into exactly the right position and another in the engine compartment trying to engage the threads at the end of a rod he couldn’t see,” the document notes. “After a number of futile attempts and many anxious moments, the connection was finally made, and we all breathed a sigh of relief.”

As for the mission accomplished, the Lunik abduction was an “example of beautiful cooperation between covert operators and essentially visible collectors,” the document obtained by FOIA states.

To learn more about this inside job, read the CIA’s historical review here.