The Story Of How The CIA Stole & Returned A Soviet Spacecraft Before Being Noticed

[@Thexaios]

3:04 is when Scott is replaced by a Soviet agent.

[@WilliamSteppan]

2:30 actually....3:04 is when he comes back.

[@bobroberts2371]

I was expecting him to turn into Max Headroom. .. .

[@dodopod]

Soviet agent? I thought those guys broke up.

[@bobroberts2371]

dodopod Nope, look up the 1977 film Telefon . Russia / the USSR / Soviets play the long game.

[@Kolan_Koala]

Just a glitch in the Matrix

[@cup.of.coffee]

It´s always polite to take off your shoes when entering a foreign spacecraft.

[@jimsvideos7201]

Look at this funny guy right here.

[@bigblue6917]

Better manners in them days😊

[@nibblrrr7124]

_"Whoa there, Johnson, what do you think you're doing? Didn't your mother teach you to take off your shoes before entering someone elses spacecraft?_ "Come on, you really think this matt-" _"Respecting property rights is what separates us from those dang commies!"_ "Jenkins... we literally just stol-" _"BORROWED! Overnight! With a heavy heart! For the sake of peace in the Free World!"_ "FINE, I'll take them off, geez... Don't start another of your high-falutin' lectures, just hand me the measuring tape, will ya?"

[@fcgHenden]

@@nibblrrr7124 Would like to see this in an anime. Or movie. 🤣

[@jmchdjaimerporkpuedolol3681]

I heard (dont quote me on this) that Korolev inmediatly took a liking of Gagarin when he removed his shoes before entering Vostok 1

[@bigblue6917]

So they did not fly a rocket out of a volcanic crater in Japan and capture it in space. Instead they just borrowed a truck for a few hours. Loses a bit the drama I'd say.

[@A._is_for]

Space heist!

[@221b-l3t]

I saw that movie recently. I had to think of Starship with their reusable chomper style spacecraft that steals a Mercury capsule and a funny looking Russian ship.

[@katenunyabizness9221]

"Artistic License"

[@houdin654jeff]

The CIA can only have so many adventures. After all, they only live once.

[@BertGrink]

@@houdin654jeff Nice 007 reference hehe

[@TheAmazingCowpig]

Cold War stories of the CIA getting in and out of places within a day or night and conducting crazy espionage or recovery missions never fail to impress me.

[@cravinghibiscus7901]

Yeah, kinda crazy how the CIA will just turn up one day and assassinate people, undermine foreign governments and then accuse everyone of doing exactly what they have been doing to them.. It's crazy, makes you think.

[@uglyduckling81]

If only we could see all the ones the USSR was conducting back at everyone else.

[@cravinghibiscus7901]

@@uglyduckling81 yeah, huh it's funny how the CIA is so good, but somehow had no idea what the USSR was doing, oh wait, the CIA had developed according to themselves, the most elaborate network of spies and intelligence assets in the Soviet Union, close to it's collapse, this in addition to the majority of Soviet intelligence being focussed on making sure the US was not attacking them everytime they pretended to or threatened to, and on keeping the CIA out of their government so they could develop rocketry advance science &c. People tend to forget that history is written by the victor, it seems like you are eating it raw my friend. Also the US planned a bombing campaign of the soviet union with their newfound nuclear supremacy just after ww2, but unfortunately Soviet airpower was too good and they quickly established their own nuclear weapons. Huh, that's an alternative way at looking at the "evil" soviets!

[@adamkiraly9805]

@@cravinghibiscus7901 I mean they were evil, and the west betrayed poland to the Soviets

[@Ijjergom]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion Or do all that but in reverse so everyone knows about it.

[@christheother9088]

No doubt an agent had the foresight to bring a metric crescent wrench.

[@longnamedude3947]

Adjustable wrench?

[@randomuser5443]

Sheldon Robertson still funny

[@grosbeak2007]

Actually, an American crescent wrench can be converted to fit metric bolts with very little difficulty.

[@tehredmage]

I like to image they sent one agent to the local Mexican hardware shop and he had a hilarious time not being understood, or something.

[@valtersvasilis]

I doubt, that metric bolts is that big of a problem for bolts bigger than 10mm or so. At least, other way around it is bolt that is bigger than 6mm and smaller than 7mm (1/16 inch ?) that get you in the metric trouble. :D

[@Ryusennin]

Imagine telling the CIA that US astronauts would one day fly on a Soyuz without having to steal it.

[@cogoid]

Or telling to KGB that Soviet rocket engines would be sold on Ebay.

[@allangibson8494]

@@cogoid Or mounted on American Atlas V rockets.

[@patrickkeyes6682]

@@cogoid or that their engines would be used as core boosters for American rockets

[@kylesanders8276]

@@cogoid KGB: ¿what is this Yee-bay¿

[@cogoid]

@@kylesanders8276 Popular science literature even from 1950s has predicted a great deal of modern Internet quite accurately. But it was mostly about remote access to information, automatic translation, search engines. I am not too familiar with the subject, but I do not recall much talk about Ebay, or even Amazon, for that matter -- even though mail-order already existed for a long time... Here is an interesting example, showing what people were able to snatch after the fall of the USSR. Video: _"Isayev S2.720 Rocket Engine"_

[@risasb]

When they stole the little wiring bits they should at least have left a note saying "Kilroy was here."

[@benwinter2420]

. **** . o o . . ". .O.

[@altergreenhorn]

Soviet elite wasn't really a trusty ones in the past and I'm wondering did they send to mexico a real hardware or a little "adjusted" one ? They must expected some CIA involvement in this.

[@jfan4reva]

I wonder if someone got a free Christmas trip to some snowy place in the Soviet Union for 'forgetting to attach those plugs'....

[@Dave5843-d9m]

The Russians used to say “They (the soviets) pretended to pay us so we pretended to work”. But getting caught out was seriously bad news. If anyone had spotted the break-in Nobody would have admitted to it.

[@den2k885]

It would have been a thank you, thank you, please thank you note.

[@blueguitar4419]

The CIA isn’t just covert operations, they are the President’s encyclopedia/Google service. Their job is more often to know what is going on in the world simply by observing and recording, not necessarily always to interfere or sabotage.

[@olliefoxx7165]

Theyre also responsible for over throwing elections abroad and at home. Of course the FBI does assist.

[@Blogengezer]

Not all presidents, only those proven to be career ending, deadly ones.

[@jamesturner6949]

Shush! Nonsense

[@FedericoLucchi]

It's called "spying", no matter how cool Hollywood tries to picture it.

[@ChemEDan]

And in the case of Kennedy...

[@radarw64]

When you said "I wonder where they are today" I thought you were going to pick up a couple of connectors and play around with them.

[@lyubenkoa]

Probably sitting among the nick knacks in the background.

[@therealanyaku]

The point of this for the CIA? In 1959 the R7 was the Soviet ICBM.

[@passthebutterrobot2600]

Quite. They wanted to know the true range of this thing.

[@bigblue6917]

True. Didn't the US do the same? It's been awhile but seem to remember reading that when some of the older US ICBMs were replaced they were used to launch satellites. Which makes good sense. Why waste a perfectly good rocket.

[@FastSloth87]

@@bigblue6917 Oh yeah, many civil rockets of the past are based off of IRBMs or ICBMs. From the top of my head I can think of these IRBM/ICBM turned space launchers: US: Thor (Delta) Atlas Titan I/II Peacekeeper (Minotaur) USSR/Russia: R-7 R-36 (Tsyklon) UR-100N (Rokot) China: DF-4/5 (Long March 1-4)

[@5roundsrapid263]

Exactly! It even says ICBM in the document.

[@OCinneide]

@@bigblue6917 The only difference between an ICBM and orbital calls rocket in those days was whether the payload was a warhead or a third stage/satellite.

[@darioinfini]

The truck driver spent the night at a hotel with "CIA handlers".

[@Kevin_Street]

Maybe doing crossword puzzles? Probably counting his money.

[@bigblue6917]

They sent in a clean up team after.😜

[@twistedyogert]

🙄

[@wondledonkey]

yeah you know they fucking axed him

[@darioinfini]

@Steven Strain I'm sure you're right. The CIA would have had to have gotten permission from the Chilean government when they overthrew them or the Iranian government when they overthrew *them* or the Cuban government when they tried to overthrow them or the Pakistani government when we sent in the military to capture and kill one of their residents or the American citizens who were experimented on when they were conducting mind control experiments in Project MK Ultra. The CIA would never do anything underhanded. Upstanding organization! By the way, since you're having understanding what "CIA handlers" means in the context of entertaining a truck driver in a hotel, it was very likely to have involved the use of hired female operatives willing to engage with the driver in an intimate way.

[@jamesmiller113]

the 2:30 glitch is pretty spooky Scott

[@01Fratricide]

Scott is actually a Alien here to Educate in elementary space travel... LOL, just kidding... it was spooky action at a distance...

[@PaulMutser]

Just the CIA cutting out the secret parts, nothing to see here, move along

[@reklessbravo2129]

That's actually pretty cool

[@jamesmiller113]

@@reklessbravo2129 true, but it put the willies up me

[@mnealbarrett]

Scott Headroom. Max's younger brother.

[@jimoberg3326]

It takes as long to manufacture a good museum mockup as it does to build a real one, and the exhibit needed one fast -- so the factory provided a production-run extra since several were built in case of launch failures, and it was left over. The analysis wasn't to copy the design, it was to assess the fabrication technology [alloys, electronics, fuels, etc] which also went into military missiles and warheads from the same factories, to provide reliable estimates of how powerful the ICBM warheads might be. . Apparently at the end of the world tour the unit went back to the vendor, and later when somebody opened it to cannibalize some components, found it emptied. Nobody could even figure out in which county the snatch had occurred. So they told me.

[@Kevin_Street]

This is like the perfect spy mission. Take a calculated risk, obtain important intelligence, and when it's all over there's no evidence you were ever there at all.

[@KiraSlith]

Well, other than the missing connectors.

[@Kevin_Street]

True.

[@Jehty_]

@@KiraSlith and the truck driver.

[@bobroberts2371]

Not a problem, the CIA used their agents from Area 51

[@jamesallen4447]

So photographing the far side of the moon was a joint achievement then.

[@sh4dy832]

involuntarily, but yes.

[@kohp111]

It makes me think about how many such operations happened on both sides (and countless others) that we'll never know about.

[@kylecramer8489]

I always like the lo-fi intro. Makes me picture a still bald, 11 year old Scott playing with his action figures

[@ethanmoore1315]

A disturbing image of a Scott-Caillou hybrid just cursed me for eternity

[@menachemsalomon]

I guess it is rather important, when your geopolitical opponent can launch intercontinental ballistic missiles, to know exactly how powerful the rockets that might launch those ICBMs are.

[@jfan4reva]

I think that's why they televised the manned vehicles returning from space. "Ha! Look at this Ivan, we're putting a payload down less than a mile from where we aimed it. Just imagine how close we could put a nuke to you! Hahahahaha!"

[@claudehebert3131]

Reminds me about the events that happened in France after the TU-144 crashed there; in the night, French agents were sent to the _unguarded_ crash site, stole an engine, brought it to a shop for dismantlement/analysis, reassembled it and put it back on the wreck before dawn... It allowed them to compute the operational capabilities of the Concordski, and show them that the Concorde didn't fell off his throne.

[@N0616JCProductions]

Even now, that intro still puts a smile on my face. From an unfortunate circumstance to something I, probably many others, love.

[@vandarkholme4745]

"The US performs mission impossible to catch up with the Soviets" "The Soviets stole US advanced technology" Advertising man, advertising does all the work

[@wallyhall]

Can I just say - thank you. Thank you for producing such great content, for being objective and simply for putting in the inordinate effort that you do - for our entertainment and increase of knowledge. I’m glad you’re able to offset some of the costs via advertising etc. Have a great Christmas, and may KZbin’s changes ever be in our and your favour.

[@TheZoltan-42]

A very nice Cold War spy story, but they could have achieved the same with a few bottles of vodka at the train station, and then work at their leisure.

[@altergreenhorn]

Soviet elite wasn't really a trusty ones in the past and I'm wondering did they send to mexico a real hardware or a little "adjusted" one ? They must expected some CIA involvement in this.

[@kargaroc386]

Nice copy-paste Nice copy-paste

[@vaclavzajac214]

2:30 when you hit your elbow

[@stupidpeople28]

Subliminal messaging

[@benwinter2420]

On your opponents scone = WIN

[@deannekliene2673]

Don't scream....

[@MrScooter46290]

Such a well put together story and something we would have never heard of if you would have took the time to entertain us. Thank you, Scott Manley.

[@thenotflatearth2714]

The title in my head: American satellite with hollow inside:*approaches Soviet satellite from behind G U L P

[@cydonianmystery5193]

I had the same image, like that James Bond film where the villain was sneaking up behind spacecraft in orbit and stealing them

[@cydonianmystery5193]

I had the same image, like that James Bond film where the villain was sneaking up behind spacecraft in orbit and stealing them

[@ML-xp1kp]

@@cydonianmystery5193 You Only Live Twice

[@simonm1447]

The Shuttle had indeed the capability for such a mission (the concept was heavily influenced by the military), however it is not public known they ever used it to grab a non US satellite, and of course it was built much later than '59

[@marsmountain2794]

2:29 I knew Scott couldn't possibly be a real human, the simulation is glitching now!

[@johncashwell1024]

Excellent job researching this, Scott Manley; your conclusions were spot on. It is the little bits of misinformation, like what you mentioned, that are giving the media such a bad reputation for misrepresenting the truth in their reporting. If only they would report the cold, hard facts and leave their opinions out. Anyway, I digress. You do a wonderful job presenting your facts and I thoroughly enjoy this channel, thank you!

[@RUNDNB85]

so, technically borrowing it?

[@LostieTrekieTechie]

@Jason Buford sounds illegal. We should arrest the CIA.

[@RustedCroaker]

It called stealing.

[@MooKyTig]

@Jason Buford I bet you're really fun and interesting at parties.

[@LostieTrekieTechie]

@@MooKyTig I mean, he isn't entirely wrong.

[@MooKyTig]

@@LostieTrekieTechie Okay, sock puppet.

[@JustSomeCanuck]

Ah yes, another time when the US realized the rest of the world likes the metric system.

[@Blogengezer]

UK's ..Whitworth?

[@JustSomeCanuck]

That's a good example of a standard that has persisted just because it works very well, even if technically obsolete.

[@robertlumsden2423]

I’m p sure that in this timeframe most countries (Canada at least) still used the imperial system iirc

[@mariasirona1622]

@@robertlumsden2423 no offense, but you're probably an american who has been misled. Only USA and two others use imperial, metric is the commonplace thing

[@Rayden440]

@@mariasirona1622 Nah he's right. In Canada we have a bastard system of measurements. While officially Canada is metric, imperial is used a lot in daily life (thanks to the Brits and close proximity to US). Everyone just get used to knowing two systems and know how do a quick approximate conversion in their head. Distance is usually measured in km as expected, our gas stations also charge by the liters. Everyone knows their height in ft'in" and in cm, they know their weight in lbs and kg. For science and academics, metric is always used, but when it comes to construction it is all imperial. If you talk to contractors in m, cm and mm they will laugh at you before asking you to convert all that to inches and feet. Our building supplies just follows the US, we use 1/2" or 5/8" thick drywall, our studs are framed 16" on center and all of our pipes and fittings are measured in inches.

[@yannickg6904]

Who needs remakes, this is an incredible tale to turn into a movie.

[@HuntingTarg]

Really - getting disillusioned with remake & sequel scripts.

[@yannickg6904]

@@HuntingTarg Midway and Ford vs Ferrari were the only two movies I bothered to watch this year. Looking forward to 1917.

[@passthebutterrobot2600]

Definitely. I'm actually surprised it's not been done already.

[@smellfish1430]

Hipperty hopperty, your spacecraft is now my property!

[@QuintonMurdock]

I just imagine the cia agents were giggling deviously and victoriously the entire time

[@Bigfoot_With_Internet_Access]

The Soviets are typing...

[@deep.space.12]

... and their message still sending via the Soviet internet.

[@weasle2904]

@@deep.space.12 Internet is based of off American inventions. Nearly all of the communication standards even today are American.

[@benwinter2420]

In cyrillic . . & we are none the wiser to this day

[@4uk4a285]

......бл*ть......

[@cashuma5010]

@@weasle2904 . . . aha, and which "American Inventions" and "American Communication Standards" do you mean ?

[@prodbyblvnk]

Oh man why did they call it "Lunik" when there was an occasion to call it "Lunatik"

[@zrgriswold]

1 million subs before 2020!

[@dauntlessstoic]

Wow seems like not too long ago it was in the tens of thousands. Congrats Scott! (if you read this) Subbed in HS I'm 23 now. My very first ever channel to sub to.

[@Kevin_Street]

This channel should absolutely have a million subs or more. It's one of the best channels on KZbin.

[@grovercleveland8572]

I legit thought this channel had 2 or 3 milllion subs

[@zapfanzapfan]

I wonder if they ever missed the "borrowed" components or just assumed there had bin a mix up somewhere?

[@hrissan]

zapfanzapfan I’m sure some workers/subcontractor were shouted at for “losing” it. Reminds me. Russian joke about some particularly untalented worker, who was locked in an empty room with 2 metal balls, and managed to lose one and break another one!😹

[@nobody-ly9ef]

That may have been the most interesting story I've never heard before.....thanks for making this video...cheers

[@toreyweaver9708]

Great video!! You should do more on Cold war space technology. I love these stories so much

[@RadarLightwave]

This is an awesome piece of space history! Thanks for sharing Scott, I would have never known otherwise.

[@hgbugalou]

Best intro on KZbin, let's just be honest.

[@ramjet4025]

As usual, Scott has made a very educational historical video.

[@japrogramer]

oh i thought they brought it down from orbit than back up.

[@alexlandherr]

Oddly I remember my dad telling me this ~10 years ago. Thanks for elaborating Scott!

[@sisyphusvasilias3943]

Did they TRY asking for a detailed tour? It was on exhibit.

[@notverygoodatthis8945]

That intro was the best thing I’ve seen all day

[@maxzzzie]

Scott. The title made me think they took it out of orbit, captured it and put it back in that same orbit where it should have been.

[@bobroberts2371]

Turnabout is fair play. According to the article " Cinerama : the Secret Weapon of the Cold War " in the magazine " American Heritage of Invention & Technology " ( Fall 2005 V 21, N 2 , Page 10 ). The Soviets gained access to the 1952 USA Cinerama camera / projection system and produced their own 100% compatible version called " Kinopanorama " in 1958

[@MatthewSuffidy]

These are the guys that sea floor lifted a sub into the Glomar Explorer. Probably nothing too valuable in either.

[@GrandMoffOfMars]

maybe off topic for your channel, but it would be pretty interesting to hear what other tech/hardware was stolen and adapted by either side in the cold war. the very short bit about the Russians using film from recovered CIA cameras to take pics of the far side of the moon left me with thousands of questions.

[@scottmanley]

Did you watch my video about that?

[@GrandMoffOfMars]

@@scottmanley didnt know there was one?? guess I will be!

[@scottmanley]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/j3XWaaWwbNWFgrM

[@DamianReloaded]

Morale of the story: If you don't manage to get the best Nazis to work for you, steal whatever the other Nazis that you missed are making for the other side.

[@weasle2904]

Ah yes, the THOUSANDS of other non-German engineers and scientists obviously aren't responsible for making 98% of the technology /s

[@DamianReloaded]

Well, everything has an origin story. Russia and the U.S. didn't have rockets until they imported Nazis to work on them.

[@weasle2904]

@@DamianReloaded Because rockets were a new and unproven weapon system idea that had no interest, Germany just developed some half assed rockets first in a war they were desperately trying to develop new wonder weapons for. The V2 rocket was incredibly primitive. Wernher Von Braun himself stated that he was no where near as intelligent as the American rocket scientist Robert Goddard. Goddard is known as the father of rocketry, building it's founding engineering and scientific principles. He developed the first liquid fueled rocket

[@DamianReloaded]

​@@weasle2904 And we all, of course, should take the word of a Nazi, because, who else can you trust? XD

[@scottmanley]

Nah they had rockets, the rocket builders just had never been given the funding to build big rockets.

[@hunterwyeth]

After reading the narratives, I’m convinced they did this for fun and because they could

[@livingcorpse5664]

Practice makes prefect.

[@robinwells8879]

I feel that the USSR should really be flattered more than irritated!

[@GWT1m0]

Imagine if the Soviets pulled such a stunt, all hell would break lose

[@robinwells8879]

The Soviets would never have done such a thing 😉

[@luddity]

@@robinwells8879 Because they didn't need to.

[@WojtekSzywalski]

Incredible story. As always a great video. Thanks Scott!

[@muskiet8687]

It's always interesting how when it's your own country doing these kinds of things it is cool, heroic spy stuff. But let's imagine any other country pulling off this kind of thing....

[@sebastianwlodarczyk]

While not as ridiculous as "acoustic kitty" operation, it's really cool material to listen to! Thanks for the awesome story (I would otherwise had not heard of ), cheers!

[@NapoleonGelignite]

The intro still makes me laugh. Did you ever get your stuff back?

[@Minox_]

What happened? Im out of the loop

[@timm.7199]

A KGB hacker named Ivan, code name Safe-Flyovitch, swiped the original intro to measure the rocket in the hopes of stealing top-secret NASA data; he still hasn't returned it.

[@w0ttheh3ll]

@@Minox_ Scott got mugged on vacation in spain. they took his laptop.

[@Minox_]

@@w0ttheh3ll Ahh right, thanks.

[@teddyhailey3035]

Dude where's my rocket?

[@blech71]

Scott, I am so sorry to report but I just noticed I have been watching your very informative videos for quite some time and benefited accordingly and I just noticed I wasn’t subbed for some reason. What’s weird is your vids have always showed up and I could swear that I was subbed. Not sure if I accidentally Unsubbed; which I don’t think I ever have to any content creator so I find it a bit odd. Anyhow, I re-subbed immediately. Thanks for the great vid! Keep’em coming!

[@01Fratricide]

Dude, awesome Digging... and love the story.

[@richardmourdock2719]

Fascinating story well told. Good job Scottie...

[@sharpsdark1271]

gotta love the budget intro

[@HuntingTarg]

I will take the budget intro with the space-age techno outro. Mo more 'cosmic bumper cars' plz.

[@NapoleonGelignite]

Sharps Dark - done on a phone when Scott’s bag went missing in Spain (I think).

soviet spec intro; cheap and it works

[@Markle2k]

@@NapoleonGelignite This was the London version after they left Spain. The X-wing is what makes me recall it that way.

[@gustavgnoettgen]

@@NapoleonGelignite yeah, they got robbed

[@KhamusSolo]

thanks for this one Scott. Really liked this story

[@SteveCole73]

So what happened to the driver who sat in a hotel room with CIA agents for the night? Was he threatened by the CIA to never reveal what happened? I'm curious as to how that part all played out

[@Wampa842]

How is this not a film yet?

[@jesseturner9865]

Love how it was told by two different space nerds. Listened to Amy's a few months back.

[@nibblrrr7124]

Oooh, now I gotta check back on Vintage Space...

[@sebastiank686]

Like the accuracy of this video. Like all your videos to be honest. Greetings from germany

[@BertGrink]

This is the very definition of "derring-do" :D P.S. Is that a model of the Starship Titanic on the bookcase? (top right)

[@absalomdraconis]

I think that's from "Rogue One".

[@brianfisher7385]

Damn Scott, creeping up on that one million sub count. Congrats in advanced!

[@Wayne_Robinson]

The R-7 is quite the engine design that keeps on giving. I hope the engineers got some non-capitalistic perks for their efforts!

[@cogoid]

Yes, at least some people got awards and privileges. But the detailed history of its origins is quite elusive -- even though it arguably is one of the most significant rocket engines in the whole history!

[@KellingtonDorkswafer]

I see your majestic collection behind you... Including the splashed down command pod for the Lego Saturn V... But where is it?! How dare you not have a separate shelf for it. (Just kidding. Great video, though I got distracted by your collection of items behind you. Nice to see another fan of the Lambda-class shuttle!)

[@thecuriousone9342]

And here you are today still relying on roscosmos to take your astronauts to ISS

[@cogoid]

Truth be told, Russians are just as far behind with trying to make their own new crewed spaceship "Orel" (formerly "Federation") -- the project is already in its tenths year, and is not projected to fly until 2023. Of course, they have preserved and even upgraded the Soyuz, which evolved over many decades during Soviet era.

[@fanboypotion4412]

Good thing we have dragon from SpaceX now, and Starliner

[@riccardoromero5300]

Do you know that a quote of KSP startup is “Flying safe...”?

[@ghostdog688]

Reminds me of the (in)famous recovery of the MiG-25 in Japan. The Soviet defector got asylum and the Soviets got their jet back - in several boxes)

[@mortisCZ]

Japan has it standards. It was probably much cleaner than during take off.

[@ghostdog688]

@@mortisCZ as funny as the mental image of someone meticulously cleaning each part of the jet and palletising the parts, I’d think it would be better for them to have sent them the instructions for assembly as well.

[@colinosborne3877]

In 1966 I went on a youth exchange visit to the USSR. One of the events in Moscow was a visit to te "Soviet Socialist Exhibition of Achievements". In the park were a couple of dozen pavilions which had originally been built to show the life/achievements of the various states but had now been refilled with various shows demonstrating soviet life. For instance, one pavilion had ladies underwear on show, which the Russian women visitors would laugh at since nothing like it was available in the shops. Then there was the space pavilion. This housed the space craft, the sputnicks and the centre piece the capsule in which Yuri Gagarin had made his trip around the world. I was amazed at the crap simplicity of it. On the outside you could see the burn marks from the re-entry as melted channels scoring the steel. Inside there was a wooden plank with leather straps to hold the guy from floating/crashing about. In front was a a small window about 200mm in diameter. At his side there appeared to be the radio equipment. Under the seat were pressured gas canisters. These were for oxygen for his breathing and ? gas for his control of the craft. In front of the astronaut were three valves - the sort you would find on your hot water tank at home, - 1/2" BSP brass with a red disc handle. From these pipes went to the shell where they were welded and each with an elbow pointing in different directions. This was standard UK plumbing technology! By the way we were able to freely take photographs, the Russians were obviously very proud. I would have been terrified to go up in that!

[@BeCurieUs]

Wonder how they kept the truck driver from spilling the beans

[@kilianortmann9979]

In Mexico? Tequila, lots of it.

[@jamesdriscoll9405]

He probably woke up in the truck a couple blocks from the train station with all the paperwork saying the job was done, a 3/4 empty bottle of mezcal and other "souvenirs" of of a good time to lead him to believe everything was ok, and no reason to raise a flag.

[@kevgermany]

Ladies of the night?

[@OCinneide]

@@kevgermany yup

[@leonardgrant6876]

Planning and execute this kind of CIA operation, it had to be extremely hard and complex to achieve. I would love to visit and met the man behind it.

[@Diggnuts]

Fly safe? Don't you mean.... spy safe....?

[@odysseusrex5908]

Terrific video, Scott, genuine Cold War skullduggery. I have never heard of this before, and I had no idea real life ever came so close to spy movies. Talk about life imitating art. After they returned the satellite, you say no one was the wiser. What about the driver they kidnapped and held in a hotel over night? He must have known something happened. What happened to him when he reported his abduction?

[@HalNordmann]

The truck driver probably knew something happened, but didn't know what exactly. And since he probably got some money from it, he wasn't inclined to share it.

[@odysseusrex5908]

@@HalNordmann Ah, the video doesn't suggest they paid him anything. Interesting idea though.

[@ahannam7817]

How did they swap the driver without him saying anything?

[@askmeforadispenceronemoret3759]

they probably paid him off either with money or by not shooting him

[@jackshen5093]

Prob just just kidnapped and threatened him

[@5roundsrapid263]

Modern major General It was Mexico. I’m sure he knew how to keep his mouth shut for the right price.

[@thekinginyellow1744]

Hookers and blow. What else could "Spent the night in a hotel room with CIA 'handlers'" possibly mean?

[@brendanwalsh1190]

What's the model in the top left? Some kind of Xwing?

[@paintnamer6403]

Metric parts ? I guarantee the CIA lost their 10mm socket in that crate. :)

[@VincentFischer]

I love the beatbox intro. You really have to thank that guy that stole your macbook for that.

[@xp9792]

This would make a great Enigma Style spy movie!

[@davetreadwell]

2:29 - either a glitch in the matrix, Scott’s holotransmitter needs calibrating, or the kraken has taken over Scott’s body

[@jerry3790]

Well, technically that’s what communism is all about.

[@cravinghibiscus7901]

AFAIK the soviets were very open handed about sharing technology, but the US being the only country with a legal first strike policy and constant hyperrealistic invasion planning military exercises in close proximity. Think it's safe to say that the US does not want collaboration, they would rather steal.

[@cogoid]

@@cravinghibiscus7901 "the soviets were very open handed about sharing technology" -- only in 1990s, after USSR has collapsed and everybody was trying to profit by selling whatever they could get their hands on -- rocket engines, secret documents, you name it. Until then, even neighbors did not know what was made at the factories next door.

[@lowereducation6631]

@@cravinghibiscus7901 the Soviet Union was one of the most bloodthirsty organizations in human history they're surpassed in recent history only by their fellow communist regimes. Anyting that was done to them was certainly justified.

[@Bialy_1]

@@cravinghibiscus7901 "AFAIK the soviets were very open handed about sharing technology" yea right, that is why over 100,000 of people in USSR were senteced to death or Siberia(less humane way to kill someone) for spying for western countries... only real cooperation was with Germany(Kampffliegerschule Lipezk, Panzerschule Kama) and ofc training facility for chemical weponds... Germans started WW2 in tanks made with Soviet metals, they were trained in Panzerschule Kama and burning soviet oil, to burn Europe to give Soviets excuse for intervention. Even Tupolev got into trouble for his flight to USA with his AN-25... and lets not forget "An Experimental Design Bureau (Russian: Опытное конструкторское бюро, Opytnoe konstruktorskoe bûro; ОКБ), commonly known as a sharashka (Russian: шара́шка, [ʂɐˈraʂkə]; sometimes sharaga, sharazhka) was an informal name for secret research and development laboratories operating from 1930 to the 1950s within the Soviet Gulag labor-camp system...".

[@cravinghibiscus7901]

@@Bialy_1 That is some hard core BS The soviets were begging the allies to intervene in germany, Stalin evem promised to send a million soldiers to france to help on the western front. The allies rejected this and continued giving hitler everything he wanted. Britain was hoping that Hitler would defeat the soviet union and would then surrender, that was the plan. Saying that the soviet union was anything but the singular biggest reason why most of europe does not speak german is because of the millions of soviet soldiers and partisans who faced the fiercest fighting in history. The red army did miracles to defeat the Nazis and now you blame them for it? Insane.

[@DagarCoH]

Now that's a handy piece of information for responding to the claims that Buran was just a copy of the Space Shuttle and similar "the Soviets could not have done that themselves" stories...

[@unflexian]

Is this a reupload? I swear you made this video before.

[@faroncobb6040]

Amy Teitel from the vintage space channel covered this a couple years ago, and since she and Scott would have used the same source documents the two videos are pretty much the same in terms of facts presented.

[@teddyhailey3035]

I thought I seen it before back in 2019 a few months back..I'd have to see my history. ..

[@terapode]

Your videos are always very entertaining.

[@MrKaifabek]

Я думаю и советский союз тем же самым занимался. Только наши много заимствовали для советской программы.

[@hycron1234]

definitely.

[@themeantuber]

Wait! From what I understand, they basically just confirmed that the USSR was reporting correctly on the craft. So, there wasn't any big secret they uncovered after all, right?

[@LordSlag]

@2:30 a Time Distortion takes place...and another @3:04...

[@thomascooley2749]

2:28 amazing work sir love the glitchly goodness

[@iforce2d]

2:29 dafuq was that.... ?

[@eboy146]

Cia...

[@iforce2d]

3:03 and there... what editing program do you use, how does that even happen?

[@nibblrrr7124]

​@@eboy146 r e p t o i d s ! or freemasons. maybe both?

[@xBlackThoughts]

Best Intro so far.... ;) Keep up the good work. :)

[@allenkemp3124]

15 former Soviet agents disliked this video.

[@simonm1447]

And one truck driver

[@siamsurf]

I was excited to watch this when I read the title, I gave a thumbs up the moment I saw my favorite intro. :)

[@ares106]

Someone write this script please! We need a movie on this.

[@odysseusrex5908]

Hear, hear!

[@RetroVikingr89]

Very interesting and awesome video- thank you Scott!

[@Peizxcv]

Feel wrong stealing from an exhibition.

[@royallclark6331]

Good video Scott!