In the midst of the space race between the US and the USSR, American intelligence conducted a covert operation to study Soviet space technology by disassembling an exhibition sample of the «Luna-2» probe.
In 1959, when the space rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union was at its peak, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) carried out an unusual operation. Agents secretly disassembled the Soviet spacecraft «Luna-2» (Lunik 2), which was on display at an exhibition of Soviet achievements, to investigate the technology used in its construction.
The operation lasted 24 hours. During this time, the CIA team gained unlimited access to the exhibit, which turned out to be not a mock-up but a full-fledged functional device. The agents disassembled the device, photographed all the parts without taking them out of the box, and then put everything back together. The Soviet side never learned about this intervention.
The results of this operation proved to be extremely valuable for US intelligence. The analysis of the photographs made it possible to identify the manufacturer of «Luna 2», to establish that it was the fifth copy produced, and to identify three suppliers of electrical components. In addition, it was possible to decipher the numbering system of parts, which was probably used in other Soviet spacecraft.
The operation was not without its curiosities. The most difficult task was to reassemble the machine. «We spent almost an hour on this, with one man in the cramped nose compartment trying to get the balloon in position and another in the engine compartment trying to connect the threads on the end of a rod he couldn’t see,» a declassified CIA document says.