All language subtitles for Atomic.Age.Declassified.S01E02.Spies.in.Space.WEB.h264-CAFFEiNE

Narrator:
They led double lives.

Man: I couldn't tell
my family or my friends,

My kids, my wife,

No one could I tell
what did I really do.

Narrator:
Guarding america's secrets

In the cold war's darkest hours.

Man: It was a black program.

The contractors were invisible,

Work was invisible.

Narrator:
A top-secret operation,

Now declassified...

Man: Our mission
was to take photographs

Of the soviet union.

Narrator: Revealing
a cloak-and-dagger world

Of robotic satellites
and orbiting spy stations.

Man: For a rocket engineer,

This was the most amazing
capability possible.

Narrator: Until now, few
have known how spies in space

Changed the course
of the cold war.

Man: In many ways,
the shadow space race

Was far more important than
the publicly visible space race.

♪

[explosion]

Narrator: 1963.

The soviet union
and united states

Have split the atom
and divided the planet.

The cold war threatens
to turn red hot.

Anton fedyashin: The cold war
became this competition

Between two fundamentally
different ideological visions

Of how human societies work.

The world was looking

Both to the united states
and to the soviet union

For models of how to modernize
their own societies.

The space race
becomes a litmus test

Of the two superpowers'
abilities

To bring humanity
into the modern age.

Narrator: America,

The wealthiest nation on earth,

Gets caught up in a space craze.

John charles: The space age
really infused the culture.

Announcer:
For the boys of today,

The space suit has replaced

The cowboy outfit
of an earlier year.

Charles:
Everybody was in a space mood.

And it became a way
of identifying

Who was thinking
upward and outward,

Who was thinking futuristically.

Don't forget,

All the automobiles sported
rocket-like tailfins, you know,

Because that was the future.

♪

Narrator: But while america
dreams of space,

When it reaches for the stars,

It seems to keep
crashing back to earth.

The u.S. Space program

Can't seem to get out
of its own way.

A string
of embarrassing failures

Sets a sharp contrast
to its biggest rival.

Fedyashin:
During the first decade,

It's pretty clear
that the soviets

Are winning the space race.

They beat the americans
into space

With the first
artificial satellite

In October of 1957, sputnik.

They beat
the americans into space

With the first living being--

The dogs, laika,
and then belka and strelka.

They beat
the americans into space

With the first human being,
yuri gagarin,

In April of 1961.

Then the first woman into space
in June of 1963.

Things really were going
the soviet way.

Narrator: Soviet successes
aren't just pr victories.

Armed with the bomb,

They cast a shadow of fear
across america.

James david:
And what was critical was

If the soviets could launch
these satellites,

The same rockets could launch
nuclear warheads

That could be sent
from the soviet union

To hit the united states.

Narrator: Americans are
terrified of a surprise attack

And fear what's hiding
behind the iron curtain.

James outzen: The soviet union
was a very closed society,

And we had no means
of really understanding

What was happening in this
very, very large area.

We didn't have the ability
to put human spies in

To gain information.

Narrator: Desperate to learn
what the soviets are up to,

America dedicates
billions of dollars

And recruits
thousands of the nation's

Top scientists and engineers

To a single covert mission--

High-tech spying from space.

Here, once-classified
films and animations

Show the scale
of the military's plan--

Sending robotic cameras
into space...

And, even more ambitious,

Putting manned military stations
in orbit.

♪

Crucially, the world focuses
on another space program--

Apollo's moon mission.

While nasa's dream team
gets all the attention,

The military develops
a parallel top-secret program.

Robert crippen: All of that
was highly classified,

And we couldn't talk about it.

Narrator: In the 1960s,

Robert crippen can't discuss
any part of what he does.

Crippen: Ok, I, uh,

I'm afraid I can't go
in too much detail on that.

Narrator:
For these astronauts,

It's just name, rank,
and serial number.

Richard truly:
My name's richard truly.

Narrator:
But today, for the first time,

They can tell the whole story.

Man: Richard truly, take one.

Truly:
Now, 50-some odd years later,

I can talk about it.

But at that time,

It was an introduction
to a world

That I didn't know existed.

Narrator: Even the astronaut
selection process

Is a mystery.

Truly: So they had a selection,

And they never asked us
whether we wanted to or not.

They just assumed that we did,
which was correct.

Crippen: I was wildly happy.

Here I was, 28 years old, and,
uh, I was gonna get a chance

To do something
I'd been dreaming about.

It was a good time,
highlight of my life.

Narrator: Crippen and truly
are test pilots,

But their training
to become astronauts

Will push them to a new level.

[crash]

Charles: It was considered

The best way to train pilots
for space flight

Was to subject them
to the extremes

Of the environment
they were likely to see.

So there were
disorientation trainers,

There were vehicles
that would tumble the astronauts

In all three dimensions
all at once,

To make them disoriented

And to test their ability
to reorient themselves

And achieve
a stable position again,

Using systems
like in a spacecraft.

There were temperature extremes.

They would put astronauts
in ovens, human ovens,

To assess
not only their physiological

But their psychological
resistance

To these kind of things.

Narrator: After selecting their
first class of astronauts,

The air force holds
just one press conference.

Truly: It was on my birthday.
I was 28 years old.

November 12, 1965.

And that was the last time

I ever talked to the media
in the program.

The following morning,

They introduced us
to the united states'

Most classified
and secret space programs.

Narrator: They are astronauts,
american heroes.

But unlike the apollo team,

They won't become
household names.

Truly and crippen disappear
into one of the most expensive,

Secretive, and ambitious
space programs

Ever conceived--

The manned orbiting laboratory,

Or mol.

David: The manned
orbiting laboratory's purpose

Was very simple
and straightforward,

And that was to acquire
very high-resolution photography

Of targets in the soviet union.

Narrator: This film,

Recently declassified
and never before broadcast,

Shows mol under construction.

It's the size of a bus.

At its heart
is a movable 71-inch mirror

For a camera that will be
as big as a car.

It will be by far

The largest
and most sophisticated

Spy platform in space.

Truly: Imagine
the hubble space telescope,

Except pointing down.

Charles:
Mol was extremely ambitious.

50 years ago,

This was the most amazing
capability possible--

Tracking items
in the soviet union

With the resolution

Of as low as 4 inches
on the ground.

Something that's
the size of a baseball

Could be seen from orbit.

Narrator: But america
isn't looking to play ball.

Mol's focus will be
on soviet weapons systems,

Especially
their intercontinental

Ballistic missiles.

At the start of the space race,

Americans fear that the soviets
have far more missiles,

And are willing to use them.

Fedyashin:
Nikita khrushchev had a tendency

To make fairly irresponsible
threatening statements

On a fairly regular basis.

But this was all part and parcel

Of projecting the image
of the soviet union

As a very powerful
military presence in the world.

Joe caddell: So, the threat
posed by the soviet union

Meant that there was a real fear

Of what people
will often refer to

As a nuclear pearl harbor.

♪

I'm talking in terms of killing

Tens of millions
of american citizens,

Destroying american cities,
infrastructure, military forces,

Essentially
ending the american republic

As we know it.

[explosion]

Narrator: In the atomic age,

Total destruction
is only minutes away.

Mol could help
head off a surprise attack,

Spotting and then monitoring
soviet missile sites.

And america
has learned the danger

Of getting caught off guard.

♪

October 4, 1957.

America gets a wake-up call
from space.

The soviets launch sputnik,

The first human-made object
to orbit the planet.

Suddenly, the soviet menace

Feels very real
for many americans.

Caddell: It didn't take
much imagination

For people to understand
in October of '57

That if the soviets
could put sputnik into orbit,

They could also deliver
a nuclear payload

To an american city.

Narrator:
Sputnik also highlights

That the soviets
are racing into the future,

While america
seems stuck in the past.

Fedyashin:
In early September of 1957,

Desegregation is being
implemented in arkansas.

And the little rock nine
has to be escorted

By members of
the 101st airborne division

Into schools with
pro-segregationist whites

Holding up signs that read,
"race mixing is communism."

And then four weeks later,

You see the soviet union
send sputnik into space.

If you are in africa
or southeast asia at the time,

Whose version of modernization
are you more likely to follow?

And I think in the '50s
and the early '60s,

The answer was pretty clear.

The soviet union was winning
not only the space race,

But seemed to be winning
the ideological standoff.

♪

Narrator: In the cold war,

Both superpowers look to space
as the new frontier

And, potentially,
the next battlefield.

Charles:
In the '50s and '60s,

It's important for america
to put people in space

As a way of showing

The superiority
of the american way of life.

The next battlefield
was in space.

It had to be represented
by red-blooded americans,

Protecting us
from the communists,

Who were sure to overrun us and
subject us to their way of life.

Narrator:
Initial plans for mol

Were straight out
of science fiction--

An orbiting military outpost,

Armed and ready for war.

♪

Charles: Early on, the mol
was all things to all people.

It had capabilities
for reconnaissance,

It had capabilities

For intercepting of the enemies'
satellites in space

And negating them.

Narrator:
But in the final plans,

Mol is an orbiting spy station.

This rarely seen footage
of a mol mock-up

Gives a glimpse into
just how big it will be.

The air force budgets
$1.5 billion in 1965,

Making it one of
the defense department's

Most expensive programs.

Each mol would be
a single-use spacecraft.

Charles:
The five mol vehicles

Were the entire production run.

And it's really
interesting to imagine

That such an expensive,
such a complex system

Would have been disposable.

Narrator: From the start,
mol is an ambitious program,

With a schedule
that's even tighter

Than the moon missions.

The goal is to start
launching in 1969.

Charles: The mission in space
would have lasted about 30 days.

Don't forget, in the 1960s,

The entire worldwide experience
in space flight

Was on the order
of 15 or 20 days.

So mol was really
pushing the envelope

To promise 30-day missions
repeatedly.

Narrator: The first step
for the mol astronauts

Is to learn the basics
of living and working in space.

Team chemistry
will be essential.

Crippen: We were all pilots,
we all loved to fly.

My fellow mol astronauts
were a diverse group.

Uh, we certainly
weren't all alike.

Truly: We were like brothers.

Great bunch of people.

Narrator: To get a feel for
the microgravity of space,

Mol crewmen start to take
elliptical airplane rides.

Truly:
If the pilot flying the airplane

Is really good,

They can maintain zero g,

And it's the only way on earth

That you can actually
create an environment

Where you can test in zero g.

Narrator:
It's a stomach-dropping trip

They nickname the vomit comet.

Charles: Early concerns
about weightlessness,

About things such as
being able to swallow...

It was seriously considered

That gravity
is necessary for swallowing

And, of course, the rest of
your digestive processes.

Would your body seize up
in the absence of gravity?

The early concerns about
space flight weightlessness

Do seem kind of laughable
from our perspective now.

Narrator:
The mol astronauts move on

To more challenging tasks.

But there are limits to what
they can do on zero-g flights.

Truly: The problem is
it's only 30 seconds.

And so to get
10 minutes of flight test

Takes 20 of these,

And it's exhausting.

Narrator: Inside one plane,

They build a mock-up
of the capsule

The astronauts will fly,

Called the gemini,

And the hatch and tunnel

That'll connect the gemini
to the spy laboratory.

They practice moving around
the tight spaces,

Turning on cameras and lights
only when they reach zero g.

Truly:
We would get airborne,

And these were only
25- or 30-second intervals.

And it was show time.

Both of us
were in the little gemini.

And we were in
full pressure suits.

Turn around,
take off the hatch,

Crawl through the tunnel,

Do all that.

Hot, sweaty.

We would get stuck.

And it was hard work.

Narrator: They try loading film
in and out of the lab

And crawling back
into the gemini capsule.

They focus on the hatch,

Which they'll close at the end
of their 30-day mission.

Charles:
After the astronauts left,

The vehicles
would have been deorbited

To keep them from
falling into enemy hands

And revealing american secrets
to the soviets.

Narrator: While the lab
burns up on re-entry,

The gemini will drop back
through the atmosphere,

Protected by its heat shield.

But mol has
a potentially fatal flaw--

The specially designed hatch.

Crippen: We needed a way

To get from the gemini
into the laboratory,

And they elected to put a hatch
through the heat shield,

That you would remove

And then crawl back
through that.

Truly:
Some of the flight crew

Thought, you know,
this is crazy.

Cut a hole in the heat shield,

Because later on
when you re-enter,

You depend on that heat shield.

♪

Crippen:
If the heat shield failed,

You would have a 5,000-degree
penetration of the atmosphere,

And it would cook
everybody that was inside,

And it would be
a major catastrophe.

Truly: Well, nobody had done
any of this before.

Narrator: Mol will be
an extremely risky venture,

But america
is running out of options.

May 1, 1960.

Newly deployed soviet
sa-2 ground-to-air batteries

Swing into action.

An intruder is arcing over
the heart of their nation,

Flying out of reach
of soviet jets.

At 70,000 feet,

American pilot
francis gary powers

Is untouchable in his u-2...

Until today.

In the days following
the u-2's shoot-down,

The u.S. Intelligence community

Claims that
it's just a weather plane

Blown off course.

But much of the plane,
including its powerful camera,

Survives the crash,

And the cover story falls apart.

David:
The shoot-down in may 1960

Proved to be
a major embarrassment

To president dwight eisenhower

Because of
the attempted cover-up.

More importantly,

It cut off the only means

Of collecting
photographic intelligence

Of the interior
of the soviet union.

Fedyashin:
And the most important question

In the late 1950s

Was the so-called
perceived missile gap--

The idea that the soviets

Had more intercontinental
ballistic missiles--

Icbms as they were known--

And that the americans
had fewer.

Narrator: Without the u-2,

America is flying blind.

David: Although
photographic intelligence

Doesn't provide
100% of the answers,

It does go a long way
in providing the answers

To this absolutely
critical question--

Where do we stand
with the soviet union

In these long-range
nuclear-tipped missiles?

Caddell:
Premier khrushchev wasn't shy

About making statements like

"we are churning out
missiles like sausages,

We will bury you."

[men yelling]

We had to assume
the worst-case scenario.

Narrator: The u-2 is no longer
an option over the soviet union.

And mol isn't even
a pipe dream yet.

America needs a plan b.

Outzen:
Eisenhower recognized

That the u-2 would
eventually be shot down.

And in the background,

We needed to be
developing technology

That would allow us
to continue to understand

What our adversaries were up to

The day that
that event occurred.

David: The united states

Started developing
reconnaissance satellites

In 1956--

One to collect
photographic intelligence,

One to collect
signals intelligence--

That is,
intercepting soviet radars.

Narrator: The first
photo-imaging satellite

Is called corona.

But on January 29, 1959,

It can't even lift off the pad.

One misfire is followed
by 12 more attempts...

And 12 failures.

But they can't give up.

David: This was
a completely new technology.

No one had ever done it before.

But the system was so important
to the united states

For its potential
in gathering intelligence,

They did not cancel the program.

Caddell:
If corona doesn't succeed,

The americans
continue to have to craft

Foreign policy
and defense spending

In terms of
a giant question mark

Regarding the soviet threat.

Narrator: Even if the military

Can get corona's cameras
into space,

Many think
there's a better option--

Human spies.

Charles: So to have
a flexible system in space,

You needed to have
people on board.

And if you had
the people on board,

You need to understand

What the capabilities
of those people were

And how to keep those people
healthy and functional

During the time
they're in space.

Narrator: In 1966, the mol team
builds an underwater mock-up

Off buck island in the caribbean

To simulate life in space.

This footage gives a rare
behind-the-scenes look

At the operation.

Engineers and astronauts

Put on their diving masks
and respirators

And then layer on
their space suits,

Filled with water.

Neutrally buoyant,

They can practice for as long
as their air holds out.

Charles:
Planning for the mol

Included underwater training,

And more than training,

Evaluation of procedures.

Narrator: Unlike
the 30-second zero-g flights,

They can spend
hours each day underwater,

Practicing maneuvers

And passing canisters of film
through the tunnel.

The mol program
is progressing,

But slowly and over budget.

Crippen: The launch kept moving
down the road.

It seemed like every year
it was a year away.

Some technical difficulties,

But it was primarily
a funding issue.

Man: Five seconds...Mark...

Narrator: In contrast,
the simpler, cheaper corona

Has been on the fast track
for several years.

On August 10, 1960,

With lucky number 13,

Corona leaves the pad

And reaches orbit.

David:
About 24 hours later,

They commanded the satellite
to eject the capsule.

They recovered the capsule,

And it was brought back
to the white house,

And president eisenhower
and some key advisors

Actually had a press conference.

Man: I am proud, mr. President,

To present you this flag
of the united states of america.

Narrator: The capsule and flag

Are the very first
man-made objects

To fly into space
and return safely.

And just one week later,

The next corona launches--

This time, with a top-secret
camera on board.

David: And so that was
a very, very small film load,

Only about 20 pounds.

A very simple
and not too capable camera.

Narrator:
Despite its limitations,

The camera photographs

1.6 million square miles
of the soviet union,

Giving america
its first look

Behind the iron curtain
from space.

And it's eye-opening.

Caddell:
A senior cia official said

That the availability
of corona photography

Over the soviet union

Was like shining a flashlight
in a darkened warehouse.

Outzen: Corona, in its
very first successful mission,

Was able to return
more images from space

Than all of the u-2 flights
combined over the soviet union.

Caddell:
We found airfields,

Entire cities,

Transportation hubs,

And air defense
missile complexes

That were previously unknown
to western intelligence.

Narrator: Most important,

Corona spots
all of the soviet icbm sites

And makes
a surprising discovery.

Caddell: By June of 1961,

The cia estimated that,
counter to air force fears

That there were perhaps as many

As 200 ballistic missile
launch pads

Inside the soviet union,

There were actually probably
only about 10 to 25.

And of that potential 10 to 25,

Only six launch sites
could be confirmed.

This gave us
a more rational understanding

Of the threat we did face
and the threat we didn't.

Narrator: Corona shows
that the missile gap is a myth.

For the first time,

America knows
it has the upper hand

In the nuclear arms race.

Corona is now
america's eyes in space.

And a satellite called grab
is its ears,

Listening for
soviet radar systems.

David:
They were very, very small,

And they were very, very simple.

But that small satellite

Carried a highly classified
signals intelligence package,

Which was designed to intercept
soviet air defense radars.

And during the roughly
three months of operation,

The grab satellite collected
so much data of soviet radars,

It took many, many months

For analysts to produce finished
and useful intelligence.

[siren]

Outzen: Knowing where
those radars were located

Was essential information

In the event that we needed
to carry out a counterattack

Against the soviet union.

Our bombers needed
to avoid those radars

In order to
successfully carry out

That kind of counterattack.

Narrator: But these
early robotic satellites

Were far from perfect.

The cameras were pre-programmed
to operate at set times,

Regardless of the weather.

Caddell:
The earliest corona missions

For the first couple of years

Were as much as
60 to 65% cloud-covered.

Narrator: When clouds
obscure corona's targets,

The satellite wastes
its precious film.

And it can take weeks
from launch to processing

For analysts to determine

If they have
any usable intelligence.

A manned station like mol,

In which people
can modify the mission

And give real-time updates,

Could solve
many of these problems.

In this rarely seen footage,

The mol astronauts
train in a simulator.

Crippen:
We had a capability

To look ahead
of our orbital track

And select targets.

The decision-making
that you can have with people

Is extremely important.

Computers can't do that.

That's still true today.

Narrator: The need
for human eyes in space

Comes into sharp focus

As the superpowers teeter
on the brink of nuclear war.

October 15, 1962.

Cia photo analysts
make a stunning discovery.

The soviets are building
missile sites in cuba,

Just 100 miles from florida.

Nuclear war has come
to america's doorstep.

[explosion]

Fedyashin: The range of missiles
that the soviets had on cuba

Was far enough
to hit new york city

And everything south of that.

So, the human catastrophe
would have been unprecedented,

And of course, the united states
would have retaliated

Against both cuba
and ultimately the soviet union.

Narrator: Corona cameras are
supposed to spot these weapons,

But instead,
the cuban missiles

Reveal the spy satellite's
limitations.

Caddell: Very famously,

The soviet missiles that are
deployed in cuba in 1962

Are found
by overhead reconnaissance.

But they're not found

By a corona photo
reconnaissance satellite,

Rather they're found

By a manned u-2
photo reconnaissance aircraft.

[click]

[click]

Corona actually does
photograph cuba.

However, the imagery,

When you look at it
on a light table,

Is horribly cloud-covered.

Moreover, the corona resolution
at this time is roughly 15 feet.

That's sufficient to see major
infrastructure

In the soviet union.

In cuba, by contrast,

The soviet ss-4s
deployed at that island

Are field deployed.

So, because of
its limited resolution

And its inability to deal
flexibly with weather,

Corona doesn't end up
adding any value

To the discovery
of missiles in cuba.

Narrator: It's a u-2
that first finds the missiles.

But the spy plane's
vulnerability is exposed again

When one is shot down over cuba

And its pilot killed.

America needs a spy platform

That can combine the u-2's
high-resolution imagery

With corona's safe overflight.

Mol seems like
it could be the solution,

But it takes
almost more five more years

To develop and begin production.

The air force
has to build and test a rocket

Powerful enough
to lift mol's 30,000 pounds

More than 100 miles into space.

On August 26, 1966,

The air force prepares to launch
a titan iiic,

A version of the rocket
that will carry mol.

It's an intercontinental
ballistic missile

Beefed up with
two solid fuel boosters.

This mission is to carry
communication satellites

Into orbit.

The launch gives truly
and the rest of the mol team

A chance to see
their future ride in action.

Truly: And so we decided
we would go down and watch it.

Announcer: 20 seconds.

Truly: They counted down and...

Announcer: 2, 1, zero...

Ignition.

Liftoff.
We're off on the hour.

Truly: It lifted off

And went up in the air.

Man: Looking very nice,
42 seconds.

Truly:
And suddenly we saw it turning,

And, uh, the range, uh, control

Blew it up.

[explosions]

Narrator:
With the mol team watching,

The rocket explodes
into thousands of pieces.

All that's lost are
the satellite and the rocket...

But a failure like this
on a mol launch

Would kill the two astronauts.

Truly:
It was not a great day.

[laughs]

But the flight crew

Comes from a group of people

That understand risk.

We knew that rockets
could blow up

And airplanes could crash.

If you don't want
to take the risk,

You don't get to fly.

Narrator:
The inherent danger strikes home

When one of
the 14 mol astronauts,

Robert lawrence,

Is killed
in a training accident.

He had been
the first african american

Selected to be an astronaut

And a key member
of the mol team.

Crippen: What did it feel like?
Well, it was very sad.

I'd lost friends before

And lost friends
subsequent to that,

But there is risk involved,
and, uh, that's part of life.

Narrator: Mol is still years
from launch.

But it's not the only program

That struggles
to get off the ground.

May 11, 1963.

A new satellite called gambit
sits on the pad

When an air bubble
in its fuel tank

Triggers the rocket's collapse.

So two months later,
they try again.

The successful launch

Places a high-resolution camera
in space for the first time.

Caddell: High resolution
provided by the gambit 1 system

Offered a fundamentally
different class of information

Than what you could get
from corona.

High resolution spatial details

Of things like
soviet naval vessel

Or aircraft or radar dish,

Allowed you
to start characterizing

Some of its
operational parameters

And not simply
identify what it is.

Narrator: By the mid-1960s,

Corona and gambit are launching
almost once a month.

Their success creates
a whole new problem--

How do you recover all this film
from space?

The satellite
ejects a film capsule

To drop northwest of hawaii.

It streaks through
the atmosphere,

Lighting up the sky
like a shooting star.

A team of air force planes

Flies in a grid pattern
over the ocean.

Their goal--

To snag the film capsule
before it hits water.

As a plane gets ready
to make a pass,

The air crew
lets out catch lines.

Outzen:
This is one of the hooks

That the air force used

To retrieve the very first film

That was returned from space.

The way the system would work

Is that two of these hooks would
be attached to the harness

Out the back end
of the aircraft.

The aircraft would
fly over the parachute,

And one of these hooks
would snag the parachute,

And that film was returned
to the united states

Where it was developed and used
for intelligence purposes.

Narrator: Gambit, corona,
and the next-generation hexagon

Produce hundreds of thousands
of images each year,

Cataloging the soviet arsenal.

But the agency in charge
of the satellites and mol--

The national
reconnaissance office--

Is invisible to the public.

Outzen: The national
reconnaissance office

Was not publicly acknowledged

From the time
that it was established in 1961

Until 1992.

Narrator: To keep the soviets
guessing about these programs,

Everyone involved maintains
a wartime level of security.

Phil pressel:
So the fact that I worked

On top-secret programs

Meant I couldn't tell
my family or my friends,

My kids, my wife,

No one could I tell
what did I really do.

There were certain words

That were taboo
to use on the telephone.

You couldn't use
the word "camera."

And the most taboo word to use
was the word "film,"

Because film automatically means
taking pictures...Cameras.

When we went on trips,

We were told
several times by the cia

You can't stay
in this particular hotel

Because they knew that
some of the rooms were bugged.

Truly: Not only
did the programs not exist,

The national
reconnaissance office

Didn't exist

And the security system
didn't exist.

It was invisible.

Narrator: But as mol gears up,

And thousands
begin to work on it,

The budget balloons
from 1.5 to 3 billion dollars.

There's just no way
to pretend it doesn't exist.

Crippen: It would be hard
for the department of defense

To not publicly state
that there was a program.

It was too visible
from that standpoint.

However, they had
an unclassified mission for us

That was doing
experiments on orbit,

That sort of thing.

So, the real mission was
very heavily classified.

Narrator: November 3, 1966.

Less than three months
after the titan iiic explosion,

Mol faces a crucial test
that can only be done in public.

The air force
gives it a trial run.

They load a mol laboratory
mock-up onto the titan iiic,

Make last minute checks,

And then top it
with the gemini capsule

That has been
uniquely modified for mol.

Crippen: The idea was

We were gonna test
an unmanned gemini capsule

With the hatch cut in it.

Crippen: They had to cut
this hatch into the heat shield,

Which made it
potentially a failure point,

When you were re-entering.

Narrator: If the heat shield
fails on this trial run,

It will be a major setback,
likely killing the program.

Man: All systems are good

With the launch vehicle
on the pad.

Man: Go ahead.

Narrator:
The manned orbiting laboratory

Will be one of
the biggest payloads

Ever carried into space.

It will get there
on a titan iiic,

The most powerful rocket
of its time.

Crippen:
We had a titan iiic

That was gonna fly
out of cape canaveral

That had a mock-up of our lab
and the gemini spacecraft.

Man: Recorders to fast speed.

Man: T minus 30 seconds
and counting.

All final checks
in the countdown

Still looking good at this time.

Narrator: The future of mol

Rides on this launch.

Man: Zero. Ignition.

[rumbling]

Liftoff.

We have a liftoff
at 16 minutes after the hour.

Climbing very nicely.

We have a roll program
initiated.

Narrator: The titan

Lifts the mol mock-up
and gemini into orbit,

Accelerating to almost
17,500 miles per hour.

But the biggest test
is still to come.

Will the heat shield's
access hatch hold up

Or fail on re-entry?

Man: We have staging,

And it's been confirmed
here on the ground.

After traveling 5,500 miles,

The gemini drops back
through the atmosphere.

Temperatures can reach
5,000 degrees.

Parts of the heat shield
melt off,

Spraying onto the windows.

[parachute fluttering]

Man on radio: Roger, we're
current now on the event timer,

But go ahead...

Narrator: The capsule splashes
down in the south atlantic...

Man on radio: Roger, will do.

Narrator: And navy rescue divers
scramble to keep it afloat

And secure lines for retrieval.

Hauling it aboard
the u.S.S. La salle

Is a lot less high-tech.

The exterior is charred.

Mol engineers
have to pry open the doors.

But once inside the capsule,

They discover that
the interior is undamaged.

The hatch
in the heat shield held,

And mol has cleared
a critical hurdle.

But while mol inches forward,

The world is changing
much faster.

By the mid-1960s,

Corona and gambit
are operating smoothly,

Collecting images of missile
sites and weapons systems

Across the soviet union.

Caddell: What corona provided
was a broad area scan

Or broad area search capability.

The gambit system was more
of a point imaging system.

In a way, the gambit system
was like a u-2 in space.

It allowed us
to type out and identify

Different types
of bomber aircraft,

Different types
of transport aircraft,

Even different naval vessels
from one another.

Narrator: By 1966,

The two satellites can tag-team
any site in the soviet union.

Outzen:
So, say a missile silo

Was identified
on the corona system.

The gambit system
would be programmed

To come and look
at that particular missile silo,

But at much higher resolution.

The later generation
gambit system,

We were able to identify objects

That were smaller
than one foot in size.

Narrator: Teamed with improved
radar and signals detection,

They provide
critical information

On the soviet military.

Outzen: They each provided

A unique contributing
piece of information

That, assembled with
another piece of information,

Gave us greater insight

Into the intelligence challenge
that we were trying to solve.

Narrator: With satellites
passing overhead

Almost continuously,

The soviets realize
they're being watched.

Caddell: There are many stories
that I have heard

Of soviets writing things
in the snow or using dirt

Or other marking agents

To communicate things
to the americans.

Many of these are unrepeatable
four-letter words.

Narrator:
Ground-based controllers

Can remotely
reprogram these satellites,

Making them much more versatile.

The later generations are
designed to carry much more film

And multiple film buckets

So they can stay
in orbit longer.

Robotic satellites
with high-resolution cameras

Fill much of the role
planned for mol,

With one important difference.

Charles: Robotic missions

Are also gonna be substantially
cheaper than piloted missions.

Or if you spend
the same amount of money,

You can get more capability
out of a robotic mission.

Narrator: By 1969,

Vietnam is consuming
most of the defense budget...

And every program
comes under close scrutiny.

Mol is running almost
three years behind schedule

And more than a billion dollars
over budget.

David: When you put
humans in space,

It is very, very expensive.

It is very, very complex.

And ultimately, president nixon
canceled the program.

Man: This morning,

The chairman and members

Of the appropriate
house and senate committees

Were informed that
the manned orbiting laboratory,

Mol program,

Has been cancelled
by the department of defense.

Narrator:
The announcement comes

Just six weeks before
apollo 11's moon mission.

Truly: Suddenly,

The program that we had

Thrown ourselves into so much

To make work

Was just gone.

The program was gone.

Crippen: It was devastating
is the way I reacted.

You know, as good as it felt
when I was selected,

It was a 180-degree opposite

Of how it was
when it went away.

So, it was, uh, certainly one
of the low periods in my life.

Truly: We thought
we were gonna fly in space,

And suddenly
our ride was yanked.

And, uh, I didn't know
what I was gonna do.

Narrator: Almost immediately,

The whole mol program
is shut down,

Scrapped, or recycled.

Charles:
The 71-inch mirrors

That would have been used
in each of the mol vehicles

Eventually found their way
into a telescope

That was used to study
the depths of the universe.

Narrator:
Half of the mol astronauts,

Including robert crippen
and richard truly,

Transfer to nasa.

Truly:
It was night and day.

Suddenly we were going
from a program

That was at the heart
of the cold war

But invisible,

To nasa,

Who encouraged their astronauts
to get publicity.

Narrator: Despite their years

Of training and experience
with mol,

Truly and crippen have to start
at the back of the line at nasa.

Truly:
The dream of all astronauts

Is they want to fly in space.

And until you do,

You're not sure
you're ever gonna get there.

Narrator: Until 1978,

All they can do
is train for the space shuttle

And hope for a chance.

Crippen: The big boss
at that time of flight crew ops

Was a guy called george abbey.

George says, "crip,

How'd you like to fly
this first space shuttle?"

And I, uh...

I was ready to turn handsprings.

Narrator: It takes crippen
15 years to reach space.

Crippen: I was 28 when I was
selected for the mol program.

I was 43 when I flew
that first flight,

So, um, tenacity
sometimes pays off for you.

Narrator:
Over those same 15 years,

Spy satellites prove

That the soviet nuclear threat
is not as bad as feared,

And america's
atomic anxieties ease.

Caddell:
One of the major legacies then

Of 1960s space reconnaissance

Is peace and stability,
to a degree.

The ability to have a firm,

Rational, evidence-based
understanding

Of the adversary's capabilities,

I would argue, drastically
reduced the likelihood

Of accidental nuclear war.

Narrator: In 1972,

America and the soviet union
sign salt I,

The first in a series
of arms control agreements.

And in July of 1975,

For the first time,

The two superpowers
link up in space

With the apollo-soyuz mission.

Crippen:
Apollo-soyuz was important

Because it allowed us
to find out

That we could work
with the soviets

On things like space

And be productive together.

Space is a good way
to bring nations together.

It really is.

Narrator: Robert crippen
lives every astronaut's dream,

Flying into space
on board the shuttle four times.

And on richard truly's
44th birthday, he reaches space.

Truly: I first got to fly
the enterprise

On top of the 747,

And then I turned around
and commanded challenger.

It was a thrill.

Narrator:
He retires from the navy

As a vice admiral.

While mol
faded into the shadows,

It played a crucial role

In the evolution
from paranoia to peace.

Truly: There weren't
a lot of good things

Going on in the '60s.

About the only thing that
americans could dream about

Was the magic mission of apollo.

But invisible to the public,

A lot of people, including me,

Were working to win the cold war

And gain peace,

And it was
a marvelous experience.