Spy story

The CIA's Bold Kidnapping of a Soviet Spacecraft

One day in late 1959 or 1960 -- dates aren't totally clear in declassified documents -- a crack team of four CIA agents worked through the night in stocking feet taking apart a kidnapped Soviet Lunik spacecraft without removing it from its crate. They photographed every part and documented every construction element, then perfectly reassembled the whole thing without leaving a trace. It was a daring bit of espionage at the early years of the space race. Intended to level the playing field between two international superpowers, it was a heist that risked turning the cold war hot.

On January 2, 1959, the Soviet Union kicked off its Luna program, sometimes called Lunik by the Western media, with the launch of Luna 1. This first spacecraft missed the Moon, but the next hit the target and became the first spacecraft to impact the lunar surface in September of that year. A month later on October 7, Luna 3 returned history's first ever pictures of the Moon’s farside. It was a stunning year for the Soviets on the Moon, one in which the United States only racked up a handful of failed lunar missions. The effect, aside from a blow to national morale, was a devastating effect on the American psyche.