How The CIA Stole a Soviet Spacecraft (declassified)
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It's possible the soviet guards/escorts were suspicious of the vehicle re-appearing overnight, but if they reported that they might be for the chop themselves, so if it seems ok why not just not-report the disappearance. Seems safer.
you got it Numan fan
This story would make a fantastic heist film/spy thriller.
There is a detailed documentary about this heist. I don't remember the name of it, though. :( It was fascinating.
Like Firefox?
It really does sound like a Bond movie plot
@@barahng A bit like diamonds are forever.
This is a fantastic presentation in every aspect. The choice of subject, the concise script, the helpful animation, and the clear narration are all perfect. Thank you!
Thank you!! Glad to hear you enjoyed it, we’re hoping to include more 3d animation like this moving forward as well
You missed Vanguard 1, the first successful solar powered US satellite launched March !7, 1958. It sent telemetry data for 7 years, is still up there and still being tracked. We were not totally bereft of success in this time period.
Most of the Soviet firsts were just because they heard the Americans were planning it and rushed to beat them. The first American satellite actually had useful scientific instruments, Sputnik just beeped every once in a while
Lol - Simpson’s RV episode, “call of the Simpson’s”.
Vanstar 1
Good presentation, but a couple of glitches in your summary at the beginning:
1) The Vanguard TV-3 was the rocket, not the satellite. It stood for "Test Vehicle 3." The "grapefruit" in the payload bay was just a radio beacon, and the one that finally made it to orbit is still up there, being the longest-lived manmade object in space once Explorer-1 deorbited. The "real" Vanguard satellite wasn't launched until the next March.
2) Explorer 1 was launched in January 1958, not February.
And while everything you said was true, by 1959, less than two years after Sputnik 1, the US started launching Corona spy satellites on Thor and later Atlas boosters using the Agena upper stage. One thing this showed that while the R7 was as capable as the Soviets had bragged (as you pointed out), they also had very few of them, and really only one launch complex. This is why while his political opponents railed about the "missile gap" with the Soviets, Eisenhower did nothing rash because he knew the Atlas and Titan ICBM's under development would outmatch them once deployed.
Poor Laika. Look at her pictures. She was so proud. So smart. She wanted to please her people so much. She didn’t know that she was on a suicide mission. It makes me sad when I see pictures of her. I wonder if her handlers cried for her. 1:36
No they did not cry. It was just a dog back then. They always tried their best and that was good enough. People today are too emotional. It wasn’t that the dog was worthless but a needed asset for the project instead of a human which is far far more valuable.
@@the_new_project wow how can i grow up to be a badass like u
If it makes you feel better, I think it was the night before the launch or something like that, one of the people in the program actually took her to his house so that his children could play with her
@ aww. They did love her. You could tell in the pictures that she was a really good dog.
@ you’re not emotional because you’re a sociopath without empathy or guilt.
No, they just borrowed it between tour displays. Did the same with a YAK jet !
and a nuclear submarine too
@@Not_So_Common_Sense That was more of a salvage action.
It's a tad ironic that the Soviet Union's and American space programmes were both lead by rocket scientists from Germany, who were captured as their research facilities were overrun by the allies at the end of WW2.
CIA officers in plain clothes? That stirred up a little humor. 😊
Yeah like they normally wear a distinct uniform… 🙄😂
This would make a great movie.
One of my favorite espionage stories was when the Soviets got someone access to a jet engine manufacturer in England. During the tour of the shop floor their man had on a pair of shoes with very soft gummy soles on it. Whenever he walked up to where parts were being machined he would grind the shavings into the shoes so they could take it back to do a full metallurgical analysis. Pretty slick!
My absolute favorite story was when the Soviets bragged about a really fine extruded copper wire they had created by sending a small piece to some agency in the US government.
We were so impressed by how fine their wire was that we drilled a hole through it long-ways and returned it to the sender!😊
so you may also like the sttory about: "theremin espionage" ... yes the creator of the famous theremin (you hear it in the star trek intro episodes) .... cheers and have a nice time
U.S. Had their Contra-gate.. Russians most likely still working with mexican cartells.. If you wondering why sudden plans to place cartells in a list as a terrorist groups..
The funny part about the first story is that one of the soviet engineers or top guys visited the guy who ran the company that manufactured that jet engine and convinced him to sell or give one to the Soviet Union. I think he won it over a game of pool or something likely with alcohol involved. Now that was in the 1940s before the cold war began.
Oh, wow.. My comment has been deleted? Seriously?
And they got a complete working engine from the Brits due to a game of pool.
The usual trick of losing the first game - before winning the second.
Thank You! But
1) Soviets never called their spacecraft 'Lunnik', it was ar portmanteau created by American journalists.
2) Soviets had A LOT of failed launches, but they chose not to publish them, unlike the Americans.
Well, Ameicans have the Vandenberg space base, where they arent really documenting what they are launching up so... that a military power runs an entirely public spaceprogram is a little bit naive.
That’s not what a portmanteau is.
Откуда тебе знать, что они его так не звали? Могли ж назвать Лунтик. Это прозвище всеравно, возможно неофициальное, могли прозвать , как угодно.
I like the historical space videos
The reason for the difference was the rocket. And indirectly, the fact that the Americans were winning the nuclear race.
At this early stage of the Space Race, both countries were relying on rockets originally designed to be used as ICBM's to get to space. The Soviets struggled to miniturize their nuclear warheads. This meant that they had to design a beefier rocket to get them to to the US.
Enter the Soviet R7 ICBM.
This is the rocket responsible for all these early Soviet successes. It was incredibly reliable. And because of rhe size and weight of the warheads it was designed to carry, it already had the payload to carry full-sized satellites to orbit. And with only slight modifications, it could fly space capsules to orbit and probes as far as Mars.
In fact, the next iteration of the R7, the Soyuz rocket, was so successful, that it was used as the Soviet's main space rocket all the way until the 2000's.
Meanwhile, the Americans were dealing with the disadvantage that none of their ICBMs had the payload to launch full sized satellites into orbit - because the warheads they were designed to carry were smaller and lighter that Soviet ones. The Americans didn't start taking the lead in the Space Race until they developed a rocket with the payload and reliability to match the R7 and Soyuz.
That, and the fact that the Americans weren't expecting the Space Race to become a thing. They expected this to play out the way most scientific expeditions went up to that point. One side launches, gets some data, and the whole thing gets quietly mentioned on page 3 of the papers.
But the Soviets turned their launch into a whole PR event. Demonstrating the might if the Soviet Union, and openly scaring the American public with the thought that "if they can launch Sputnik, they can rain nuclear warheads on us at any time."
USA had N@zi technology. Lets not kid ourselves
Ok, but Redstone wasnt an ICBM. It didnt have the range. Atlas was the first American ICBM, and R7 was in service for 2 years when it came.
>Start propaganda war
>Lose so hard your country collapses
Lol
As usual all this American bots will always say rubbish to give credit to America lol 😂 they just don't accept what others do, i don't know the kind of animals this people are.
They steal and blame others.
They lie and blame others
They spread propaganda and accused others
They will never accept that others and doing better than them 😂😂😂
LSD and hookers? damn CIA do that to me.
Interesting about the Soviet drivers were so lavishly entertained. Almost sounds like a James Bond movie. The US' Moon race was because of Sputnik's success, fueling fifteen or twenty years of concentrated effort and education. Then came Nixon and he seriously cut back NASA.
It's a huge coincidence that the Soviet official who was receiving the trucks at the railway station didn't notice that one of the trucks was missing. Perhaps there was a longer convoy, but the video makes it look like the official couldn't count to three.
Great video! Keep em coming please! Looking forward to following you onward if this is the standard, amazing
This was a great jump in production value!! Congrats!! 😊👍
You also managed to combine two things that I love: Space & History. Well done!
You know Americans take operation seriously when they take their shoes off being inside 7:44
Underrated comment 😂
For context: the reason the Soviets were so far ahead in rocket technology was because they needed them to be able to use nuclear weapons on the continental USA. The Americans weren't originally so bothered because they had European bases from which they could fly bombers. I would guess the CIA were interested in Soviet space technology because they wanted to know where to look in the USSR to find people working on ICBM and nuclear warhead technology. Benefits to NASA would just have been a nice extra.
It is a satellite not a rocket
The reason is Ukranian engineers.
We don't know because we were not born 😂
Thats certainly what you read
@@vp6087 You're right! The CIA correctly assumed that those wishing to become traitors should be sought among Soviet citizens of Ukrainian nationality. The most famous Soviet traitors: Rezun, Skripal, Litvinenko, Belenko...
BTW the film what Soviets used to get pictures from the far side of the Moon was salvaged from American spyballons flying over the Soviet Union. they found it good quality.
Better than anything the Soviets could produce and able to handle the radiation.
Excellent video
Excellent comment
I knew one of the CIA Agents who worked on this, Colonel Royden Ogden. He was originally a US Army Ranger and was a Adviser to South Vietnam and then Army Intelligence and then CIA. If you do a little research you will verify his background.
I'm just glad to find an educational youtube channel that isn't Simon Whistler.
Intriguing indeed ❤
Great video
I didn't know that. The story would make an interesting film.
2:50 Xi Jinpork had this device copied, but not for the Chinese Space Program.
You know what I’m sayin… 😉
Great story and video 🎉 thank you!
Soviets built literal space interceptors, the IS and Polyus Space Weapons Platform. It's safe to say this legacy carried over to Russia.
Thanks
This story is mostly true, as Russian I've heard about it from our secret spies, who were already retired and declassified. However there are few inconsistencies.... 1. Driver of the truck was local, but he was hired by soviets and received a generous pay for every successful delivery. This guy was approached by CIA and offered twice the amount for 3 hours of his time. As exhibit convoy left facility, driver was suppose to create a "truck broke down" situation and fall behind the convoy. In that moment CIA agents would intercept the truck and guide driver with his payload into special facility, where they would take entire satellite apart, down to last bolt and crew, photograph it with presents of top engineers study it and put it all together and send it back where this crate should have been. That is exactly what they did, however driver was very nervous and was freaking out the entire time. Because Soviets were very friendly with Mexico government and if something went south, this driver would have never seen his family, nor his family would have even known what happened to their guy. NASA (former German nazis) engineers had found technology, what made Russian rockets so stable and successful. Sense NASA engineers were too stupid to make their own tech, based on Russian, they simply copied it all and that what made US space program capable of carrying man to the moon. P.S. Russians did find out that CIA not only stole their satellite, but took it apart and studied it. Some heads rolled after this incident, few heads of security were sent to prison for a long time. That driver was treated as a traitor and was dealt with. mystery of his disappearance isn't solved till this day. Ever sense that night, none of Soviet "real" space crafts was ever shown on international exhibits.
Souds like a plot in a TV show "Mission Impossible."
The lead the Soviets had in the early space race came from the fact that the USSR would have a huge problem sending strategic bombers to targets in the US, that being Canada.
Soviet Strategic war plans required overflying Canada to reach the US. Flying over 2000 miles of enemy territory was not going to be possible, so the Soviets turned to developing a missile program.
If your missile can deliver nuclear weapons to the far side of the planet, it can deliver a slightly lighter cargo into orbit.
On top of this, for hippy dippy reasons, NASA wanted to use a non-weapon rocket to put our stuff in orbit. Our best rockets were the Redstone and Atlas rockets developed to deliver nuclear payloads to the USSR. The Redstone designed began development in Germany as the V-3, to replace the smally V-2.
Amazing! Subscribed!!
US when they steal Soviet design: Brave, heroic, ingenious
Soviets when they steal US design: Backwards, struggling, copycat
Insane mental gymnastics.
please show any example of America copying any country
Thank you
No ones said that in the comments so idk where your getting that from.
still applies today with any geopolitical US/ Western adversary, take most recently DeepSeek- Chinas open source LLM that outperforms OpenAI's ChatGPT. You can't get 5 sentences in before another Westerner spouts some nonsense on how "Chaina" stole ChatGPT software as if OpenAi themselves infringe on the intellectual property of basically anyone who ever published something online.
Why would the Soviets want US technology 😢 a step backwards 🤔 😅
It's the same in reverse if you're asking the Russians. Every government paints themselves as the hero and the adversary as inferior. Wait till you hear what North Koreans tell their people! Best country in the world, they are the saviors, they are technologically and morally superior!
Those bastards at the Soviet Space Program roasted poor Laika alive because Sputnik 2 lacked heat shielding. I hoped the CIA took selfies with it and mailed them to Nikita Khrushchev.
well told
I guess Operation Paperclip missed a few of those German scientists? Well, at least we got VonBraun.
@@OldMan854 not many. Russian success came from all the V2's they captured. And having Korolev already on the payroll to study them and use them as a starting point for developing his own brilliant designs.
The man definitely deserves to be mentioned alongside Goddard and Von Braun as one of the giants of early rocket design.
Indeed. The Soviets had Operation Osoaviakhim, where they got the other German rocket scientists.
@@andrewb1921 And Glushko
Well, the Soviets definitely did get a few German scientists, though the bigger prize was all the tooling, devices, and machinery related to the V2 program. But the captured scientists were ultimately less important to the Soviets because “space exploration,” rocketry, etc. was already a fascination and focus of Russian thinkers from at least as early as the 19th century.
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky is considered a godfather of astronautics and published in 1903 a paper outlining exactly how humans could explore the solar system using rockets and spacecraft and backed it all with mathematics and physics. His work was an inspiration to VonBraun along with Korolyev and Glusko and is just the sort of figure that Russia has a funny habit of creating.
You GOT von Braun, a war criminal who was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates who were used as slaves. The carelessness of American citizens for the lives of other people is quite extraordinary. Perhaps this is the famous freedom of thought, freedom from all the trouble of thinking. It would have been honest if you had also placed a swastika on the moon along with the American flag. That would have been prescient. Now you have a real fascist as your president, not to mention Musk's open support for fascists.
fills my heart to know that americans were always a couple of steps behind the USSR
The Russians beat the hell out of America on the space program. America, hey let's steal their technology! 😂😂😂😂😂😂
We had our own German guys eventually. Dr. Goddard too.
Sputnik 3 looks like it was made by Kerbals! classic!
ICBMs might be worth a mention.
-The only thing that comes to mind is WHY didn't the US Government steal this device? The Soviets would never admit that sort of thing, and we could have gained a hell of a lot more knowledge about the Soviet space program....
To be honest - not that much. This was more or less a capability check on the ground. The USA had to make their own engines and while over engineered - they were at the end more capable than any russian counterpart. Some designs were dead end, despite their extreme thrust - like a solid propellant device with about 50MN of thrust (I don't remember exact value but it was close to Saturn V) or tripropellant with enormous specific impulse - at the same time expelling hydrogen fluoride
As Arte Johnson would say: Verrry interestink!
...but SHTOOPID!
You don't often get to hear about these early failed US launches.
True, but they were what made the eventual moon landing so significant.
And you never get to hear about early failed Soviet launches.
Watching this made me think of the Mad Magazine's artist Don Martin and his "Spy VS Dpy" that appeared in each edition of the magazine. The little all white spy and the little all black spy were constantly trying youll something on each other such as this.
@@ronfullerton3162 loved those cartoons!
There are actually videos of those two now!
@sadwingsraging3044 I loved Don's creations. He packed lots of humor and life into those cartoons. I didn't even know anyone had put any of his stuff out. Guess I will have to look into that.
Don Martin had nothing to do with Spy vs Spy; it was started Cuban refugee Antonio Prohias who worked on it until 1987, with four more cartoonists following, when Martin had already left Mad on account of poor treatment and joined "Cracked" magazine.
Great story
10:00 "maybe they didn't notice maybe they just didn't care enough to make it known that they did"
well if u were the officer responsible for logging in the crates at the rail depot... and in the morning u realize there is an additional crate u missed last night, would u report it to your superiors? :D
in the soviet army??? fancy an extended holiday in siberia?
So, in 1959 the US was not able to bring anything into orbit. But in 1969 they landed a man on the moon. What an unbelievable achievement.
@@MusicalZombie You’d rather have the Challenger crash happen again? I’m not sure what your comment is saying
Enter Werner Vahn Brauhn
Hollywood
It's quite funny how this operation took place. It's the same nowadays, with the Russians decades ahead with their hypersonic and deepsea weaponry. Perhaps my grandchildren can enjoy a similar story.
Ah yes, if you can't win...cheat.
Are you planning to make a video about Frank Malina and the WAC Corporal? I recommend Fraser McDonald's book for that topic!
"...three men." Just three, random men.
Today's technologys are not so secret,
theories can find in Google, but the raw
materials and manufacturing process
that you can't imagine and handle, likes
the chips, hard to duplicate even has a
real one in hand.
I think the big secret tech is an energy cell that can store vast amounts of electricity. Obviously it can't be released to the public otherwise thieves would be robbing the grid and potential wars would start but I think its the ace up our government's sleeve. Battlemechs, small drones that could fly across the planet, and other advanced military weapons could be created quickly using this tech.
Are you attempting to write in Haiku verse?
it was incredibly stupid of them to use the actual craft for the world tour instead of a mockup.
😮didnt know thos even happened 😮
I wonder if humans would have ever gone into space had the Russians not started it all?
Most likely, just way later
Thought this was going to be about the Ketchburg " UFO " , it was Soviet wasn't it.? 👽🤔
I like story time
TV is so dead. This content is sick.
Fun story, tha is for producing it
*Was the secret that there was no secret?*
1.15 they didnt launch sputnik 1 in '57. they launched sputnik. the numbering system didnt come into play 'til sputnik 2. so they launched the first sputnik, but not sputnik 1
It’s retroactively known as Sputnik 1.
@@rabbidpig3480yeah, it’s like saying that WWI didn’t end on November 11th, 1918 because it wasn’t called that before WWII
Hey CIA. My mother soldered some parts of the lunar rover. Was she in your list?
I watched on one of James Bond fliks…
Nah nah we barrowed it.
Pueeen ponerle audio en español por favor?
"Yo soy un hombre sincero
De donde crece la palma
Yo soy un hombre sincero
De donde crece la palma
Y antes de morirme quiero
Echar mis versos del alma
[Estribillo]
Guantanamera
Guajira Guantanamera
Guantanamera
Guajira Guantanamera
[Verso 2]
Mi verso es de un verde claro
Y de un carmin encendido
Mi verso es de un verde claro
Y de un carmin encendido
Mi verso es un ciervo herido
Que busca en el monte amparo
[Estribillo]
Guantanamera
Guajira Guantanamera
Guantanamera
Guajira Guantanamera......."
¿Feliz ahora?
One man's "Officer" is another's 'B&E Felon." All patriots.
The Russians got really paranoid when they discovered the Space Shuttle had bay doors that opened up with a robotic arm 😂.. they thought it was being used to steal Russia's satellites while in orbit! 😂 They then made an EMP hand gun that can be used in space against American satellites LMAO
LSD? Man, messing with America must've been weird. You go to the Western hemisphere and the next thing you know, the walls are moving.
the question isn't *why, it's *how.
a bit funny to see how USA vs. USSR back in those days and China vs. USA today, someone was trying to steal from the other one =))))))
alcohol, LSD, prostitutes...
such a bullshirt! Everything of your story!
LSD!? madlads
There was no Taco Bell back then. They had to come up with something overwhelming.
So, did they know?
All CIA officers are plain-clothes...
A German engineered Soviet rocket...
Dogs beat us to space.
We launched a Shepard. Well, Alen SHepard
A valuable lesson in not underestimating an adversary. But the US keeps making the same mistake.
Yet america can't even rebuild the saturn 5 or the f1 we have regressed
This feels more like a summary story than a deep dive. Especially with the glossing over and vague details on the actual space race itself. It feels more like the video was perpetuating the main story instead of actually finding the nuanced details
Love your stuff, watch every episode. I like the changes you’ve made except the automated people. They look kinda goofy.
Yes, the soviets launched the first dog to die in space
Thank you for the explanation what it was done for! Before it, the whole operation looked stupid and useless
The Russians had really set a standard in space travel. How far the mighty have fallen.
I do not remember the Soviets first leader of their space program, but as long as he was alive, their program was unstoppable. But he supposedly passed away during a basically routine surgery. Everyone that h ld the post since, has been unable to lead and advance their space operation to the ability that he had.
Not really as the Russians still have a more reliable rocket than SpaceX does...
Soviets... the russians are too stupid
@@ronfullerton3162 Well, even then theyd have lost as the sovs only led in rocket lift strength, which the US caught up to with the saturn 1
@@davidhollenshead4892 SpaceX's Falcon 9 has a higher mission success rate than Russia's best rocket, the Soviet designed Soyuz-U
I grew up in Australia where there are two imperatives in relation to competition. 1 you don't cheat and 2 you don't argue with the umpire. Most likely British principles once held true but now long forgotten.
The US seems to have different principles, or at least there is a large group in the US society that has different rules to live by.
The Russians still haven’t landed a man on the moon.
yeah nice job.
Alcohol, LSD,hookers, and?
38.01978° S, 145.18782° E a crack in my screen won’t let me reply to a reply I believe this is the exact spot it’s not the best place to share to people because of the access it’s not something everyone can you can fish it from the trail but it’s not as good and hard to land and is infested with snakes
Commanding lead? No
its getting rly suspicious did ameri-cans landed on moon.
3:18 enough of the introduction, GET TO THE POINT
Poor dog. Why a dog? Why not a mouse or even a rabbit?
1. Sending a dog got approval from Khruschev because of its propaganda value. A small animal like a mouse would not do - not impressive enough..
2. The leading animal boffin involved had done a lot of work with dogs and stuck with what he was familiar with.
3. Dogs can tolerate many hours of inactivity, which mice and rabbits cannot do. During launch preparation, the process can be stopped (known in the US as holding the count down) while technicians sort out faults - leading to hours of just sitting in a capsule doing nothing.
4. Dogs are highly trainable. They trained the dog to expect and tolerate high G's during take off followed by weightlessness. A rabbit under such conditions would simple have a heart attack from fright and die. Probably a mouse would too.
5. Small animals even if they survived launch stress wouldn't last long enough to get useful data. A dog could be trained to eat the gel food provided.
6. The ultimate goal was to see if space travel was safe for men. it was thought that there just might be radiation in space that might kill or medically affect men, so an animal close in size and physiology to men was desirable. The Soviets chose a dog and the US chose monkeys.
Sounds like fairy tales ... local track owner in USSR was impossible. Same as prostiputes abd LSD in hotels...
😂😂😊😊please ansuear to portuguese please, i am sory , iam astrology brasiliana, tankyou friends😂😂😊😊
Still quite disappointed in The Space Race's low subscriber count: you deserve so much more. Keep at it & don't sacrifice quality or length. Nothing worse than really short videos.
I was annoyed by end of first minute.
For the rest who are annoyed, thankfully, there's a "Do not recommend annoying childrens channels" button. 😂
🎉and abangpuntok