NOVA delves into the untold story of a secret U.S. Air Force-run
program designed to launch military astronauts on spy missions in
space during the Cold War.
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describes the competition between the United States and the
Soviet Union (USSR) to be leaders in space technology in order
to gain an advantage in the Cold War.
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explains the necessity for human involvement in the space spy
program due to the inability of America's first spy satellites
to take useful pictures during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
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introduces a number of talented USAF members who were recruited
and trained at California's Aerospace Research Pilot School.
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reveals that the recruits were actually part of a secret crew
selection for a military astronaut program.
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documents the 1963 public announcement of the manned orbiting
laboratory (MOL) program and its stated goal of conducting
experiments on the survivability of military astronauts in space
and their ability to observe and track objects on the ground.
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reveals that the MOL was not actually intended for experiments,
but as a highly secret mission to spy on and photograph enemy
targets in real time using a telescope with a four-inch
resolution.
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recounts the experiences of the crew involved in the MOL
program, including how they trained for working in space and how
they were instructed not to tell anyone—even their
families—what they were doing.
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explains the challenges of obtaining detailed photos of targets
from space and reviews the strategies developed to improve
resolution, including lowering the MOL orbit over points of
interest and using a six-foot lens.
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reports on the USSR's simultaneous development of a manned spy
satellite.
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announces the cancellation of the MOL project in 1969 in favor
of the development of unmanned spy satellites that could
transmit high-quality video signals back to Earth almost
instantly.
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reports on the Soviet's subsequent launch of Almaz, an
orbiting spy station equipped with sophisticated technology
designed to track objects on Earth and in space.
