TV Program Description
Original PBS Broadcast Date: February 12, 2008
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.
Coproduced by investigative
journalist James Bamford, acclaimed best-selling author of The Puzzle Palace and Emmy Award-winning producer Scott Willis,
"Astrospies" uncovers new clues about the tensest period of the
Cold War, when the U.S. and USSR were on the verge of war and desperate for
intelligence on each other's nuclear capabilities. [For more on this
jittery time, see Space Race Time Line and Spy Photos.)
In the U.S., the Air Force-run
program was given the cover name Manned Orbiting Laboratory. The public was
informed only that the project involved placing military astronauts in space to
conduct scientific research. But in reality, as the MOL pilots themselves tell
NOVA, their actual mission was far different—although even they were kept
in the dark at first.
In fact, MOL was designed to be an
orbiting spy station, with two astronauts operating an array of
intelligence-gathering instruments, including a telescope capable of resolving
objects on the ground as small as three inches. In footage broadcast for the
first time, NOVA shows a mock-up of MOL's interior as well as astronauts
training for different phases of the mission.
Not to be outwitted, the Soviets
guessed the clandestine purpose of MOL and designed a similar manned spy
station called Almaz. They launched three versions of Almaz in the 1970s. For
this program, NOVA was given exclusive access to a fully complete back-up of
Almaz in a restricted Russian space facility, where a cosmonaut demonstrates
the reconnaissance systems.
With a cannon designed to destroy
hostile satellites—or attack American astrospies—Almaz may have
been the only manned spacecraft ever equipped for space war. And when the
cannon was test-fired, it marked the first shot on a possible battlefield of
the future. The weapon was possibly a response to one of the top-secret
experiments planned for the MOL: capturing or destroying Russian satellites.
Although MOL was canceled before it
ever got off the ground and MOL astronauts were virtually unknown, many went on
to successful careers in government and business. A number flew aboard the
space shuttle, including Robert Crippen, who piloted the first shuttle mission.
Richard Truly, another MOL veteran and shuttle astronaut, went on to become
Administrator of NASA. Robert Herres served as the first Vice Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff. And James Abrahamson headed President Reagan's
Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as the "Star Wars"
antimissile system. (For more on these astrospies, see Secret Astronauts.)
So secret was MOL that astronauts
are even reluctant to talk about it today, although several discuss aspects of
it for the first time on NOVA. "We did have a joke in the program,"
reminisces Richard Truly, "that one day there was going to be a little
article back on page 50 of a newspaper that said, 'an unidentified
spacecraft launched from an unidentified launch pad with unidentified
astronauts to do an unidentified mission.' That's the way it was."
Program Transcript
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