

CIA covert operation helped America win the race to the moon - ttctciyf
http://www.commdiginews.com/news-2/cia-covert-operation-helped-win-space-race-22174/

======
softbuilder
Exactly what out of this story helped us? The intrigue is interesting, but it
doesn't live up to the hype of the headline. This event happened in 1967? Even
if they found some amazing advantage in the Soviet hardware, would it have
been in production in time for the first moon landing?

~~~
adaml_623
I suspect this is what a lot of CIA operations involve. A whole lot of
planning and deft technical execution but in the end little clear benefit.
Still they 'need' to do it in case the 'bad guys' win. And of course,
'Everyone is doing it'

And I'll bet it made a fun story for the director of the CIA to tell at
cocktail parties.

~~~
AndrewKemendo
Even if the impact on a near-term undertaking is limited, the understanding of
comparative capabilities are huge for program management decisions for future
iterations.

For example had they realized that the LM the Soviets were building was
incapable of working, that could impact the program in huge ways including
changing how funding for the US program was structured, rule out or confirm a
configuration as viable, speed up development in other critical areas etc...

~~~
lallysingh
I think that they would have figured that the Soviets changed something
between the production and displayed item. You can't categorically say that it
couldn't work. AFAICT, Intel work is rarely that certain.

------
ttctciyf
Looks like the declassified document the linked article is based on:
[http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB479/docs/EBB-
Moon...](http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB479/docs/EBB-Moon13.pdf)

Links to other (I think) recent releases by National Security Archive can be
found in
[http://www.designntrend.com/articles/16988/20140721/apollo-1...](http://www.designntrend.com/articles/16988/20140721/apollo-11-moon-
landing-nsa-reveals-us-military-planned-surveillance-system-on-moon.htm)

Edit: in fact, probably just read at
[http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB479/](http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB479/)
for the source docs

------
CanSpice
The redacted document can be found at the CIA's library at
[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-
intellig...](https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-
intelligence/kent-csi/vol11no1/html/v11i1a04p_0001.htm)

Note that it doesn't say when this happened, only "number of years ago" from
when the document was written in 1967.

------
spiritplumber
I do wonder how much sabotage happened in the space race... while I'm sure
there were lots of attempts to get the other side's tech goodies, I like to
imagine no actual sabotage was involved. Rockets are plenty dangerous on their
own.

~~~
EA
The USA got a lot of "tech goodies" when they brought Dr. Wernher von Braun
and company from Germany.

