This documentary is co-produced by James Bamford, an investigative journalist and the best-selling author of ‘The Puzzle Palace’ and Emmy Award-winning producer Scott Willis. It follows the secret undertakings of The US and The USSR, who were both running parallel space programs so as to launch military astronauts on spying missions prior to the race to the moon by both the countries in the 1960s.
This documentary reveals new clues about the space programs undertaken by both of them in a desperate attempt to undermine the military and nuclear superiority of the other. The public and even the astronauts were initially not told about the main mission of the Air Force run program of the U.S., named Manned Orbiting Laboratory, disguising the orbiting spy station under the pretext of scientific research. In fact, the Manned Orbiting Laboratory was designed in a way that two astronauts could operate 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, a mock-up of the Orbiting station’s interior as well as astronauts training for different phases of the mission was demonstrated.
