The secret
history of spies in space is about be revealed.
The new
documentary "Astrospies" will delve into the U.S. Air Force's Cold War-era space
reconnaissance program and its Soviet Union counterpart during a Tuesday
edition of the series NOVA on the Public Broadcasting System.
"We used to
have a joke in the program," said former astronaut Richard Truly in a statement.
"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."
Truly was
one of the first U.S. military astronauts selected for the USAF's Manned Orbital
Laboratory (MOL) program in 1965. He later flew NASA shuttle missions in
the 1980s and ultimately served as the agency's top administrator between 1989
and 1992. But during the MOL program, his astronaut status and that of 16 other
military spaceflyers were classified as secret.
"That's the
way it was," Truly said.
Under the
MOL program, two astronauts would launch atop a Titan 3 rocket in a spacecraft
similar to NASA's Gemini capsules, then conduct reconnaissance missions from
orbit using ultra high-resolution telescopes. The USAF scrapped the top secret
program in 1969, but not before the then-Soviet Union devised its own space-based
spy platform: Almaz.
Tucked
within the Soviet's multiple Salyut space station program, Almaz arose in the
1970s and was reported to include a cannon weapons system for use in space.
The
military spaceflyers even had their own special
spacesuits. NASA discovered the blue space garments by accident in 2005
after cracking open a long-sealed room at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Written by
investigative journalist James Bamford and directed by C. Scott Willis, "Astrospies"
debuts tonight to rather fortuitous timing in the realm of space reconnaissance.
The documentary chronicles the rise of the manned space espionage vehicles in
the U.S. and Soviet Union, as well as their downfall from robust unmanned spy
satellites.
Earlier
today, space officials in Russia and China challenged the
U.S. by presenting proposal to ban future weapons in space. The proposal comes
just over one year after China tested an anti-satellite weapon that destroyed
one of the nation's older satellites.
Meanwhile, U.S.
efforts at space-based reconnaissance have been in the spotlight of late due to
a defunct spy satellite expected to reenter the
Earth's atmosphere in coming weeks.
"NOVA:
Astrospies" will air Tuesday, Feb. 12 at 8 p.m. ET/PT (check local listings). Click here for MOL program
profiles and more program information.
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