THE KIDNAPING OF THE LUNIK

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Lunik on Loan: A Space Age Spy Story
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06355349
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: October 10, 2019
• Document Release Date: October 17, 2019

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3.5(c)
3.3(h)(2)
CRET
NO FOR DISSEM
� STUDIES
in
INTELLIGENCE
VOL. 11 NO. 1 WINTER 1967
. CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
SE
N? 1585
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CRET
NO FORE1 1SSEM
STUDIES IN INTELLIGENCE
EDITORIAL POLICY
Articles for the Studies in Intelligence may
be written on any theoretical, doctrinal, oper-
ational, or historical aspect of intelligence.
The final responsibility for accepting or re-
jecting an article rests with the Editorial
Board.
The criterion for publication is .whether or
not, in the opinion of the Board, the article
makes a contribution to the literature of in-
telligence.
EDITOR
PHILIP IC. EDWARDS
EDITORIAL BOARD
SNEnu.A.N KENT, Chairman
DoNALn F. CHAMBERLAIN
LAWRENCE R. HOUSTON
WILLIAM N. MonEx.x.
JOHN H. RicHanDsoN
R. J. Slum
Additional members of the Board are
drawn from other CIA components.
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Getting factory markings from inside
a Soviet upper-stage space vehicle.
THE KIDNAPING OF THE LUNIK
Sydney Wesley Finer
A number of years ago the Soviet Union toured several countries
with an exhibition of its industrial and economic achievements. There
were the standard displays of industrial machinery, soft goods, and
models of power stations and nuclear equipment. Of greater interest
were apparent models of the Sputnik and Lunik space vehicles. U.S.
intelligence twice gained extended access to the Lunik, the second
time by borrowing it overnight and returning it before the Soviets
missed it. This is the story of the borrowing, which required the
efforts of many people and close cooperation between covert and
overt intelligence components.
On View Abroad
The Soviets had carefully prepared for this exhibition tour; most
of the display material was shipped to each stop well in advance.
But as their technicians were busily assembling the various items in
one exhibition ball they received a call informing them that another
crate had arrived. They apparently had not expected this item and
had no idea what it was, because the first truck they dispatched was
too small to handle the crate and they had to send a second.
The late shipment turned out to be the last-stage Lunik space
vehicle, lying on its side in a cabin-like crate approximately 20 feet
long and 11 feet wide with a roof about 14 feet high at the peak
It was unpacked and placed on a pedestal. It had been freshly
painted, and three inspection windows cut in the nose section per-
mitted a view of the payload instrument package with its antenna.
It was presumably a mock-up made especially for the exhibition; the
Soviets would not be so foolish as to expose a real production item
of such advanced equipment to the prying eyes of imperialist
intelligence.
Or would they? A number of analysts in the U.S. community
suspected that they might, and an operation was laid on to find out.
After the exhibition closed at this location, a group of intelligence
officers had unrestricted access to the Lunik for some 24 hours. They
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The Lunik �
found that it was indeed a production item from which the engine
and. most electrical and electronic components had been removed.
They examined it thoroughly from the viewpoint of probable per-
formance, taking measurements, determining its structural .character-
istics and wiring format, estimating engine size, and so forth.1
Now, one of the things intelligence can do, and routinely does, with
a piece of important Soviet hardware is to identify the plants that
manufactured it and its components through detailed: analysis of the
factory markings stamped -or stenciled on them .2- A few markings
had: been copied :from the Lunik during this operation, but not with
sufficient detail or precision to permit a definitive identification of
the producer or determination of the markings system used. It was
therefore decided to try to get another access- for a factory markings
team.
'For. the ultimate amtdbution of this infortnation.. and . a sketch of the Lunik see
''.totelligerice for the Space Race: by Albert D. Wheelon and Sidney N, Cray-
heal, in Studies V 01, p. 1 If, in particular pp. 9-11.
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The Lunik
Plans and Problems
As the exhibition mO-ved from one city to another, an intercepted
shipping manifest showed an item called "models of astronomic ap-
paratus" whose dimensions were approximately those of the Lunik
crate. This information was sent to the CIA Station nearest the
destination with a request to try to arrange secure access if the Lunik
should appear. On the basis of our experience at trade fairs and
other exhibitions, we in factory markings preferred access before the
opening of an exhibition to the alternatives of examining it while in
the exhibition hall or after it had left the grounds for another
destination.
Soon the Lunik crate did arrive and was taken to the exhibition
grounds. The physical situation at the grounds, however, ruled out
access to it prior to the show's opening. Then during the show the
Soviets provided their own 24-hour guard for the displays, so there
was no possibility of making a surreptitious night visit. This left
only one chance: to get to it at some point after it left the exhibition
grounds.
In the meantime our four-man team of specialists from the Joint
Factory Markings Center had arrived. We brought along our spe-
cialized photographic gear and basic tools. We each went out and
bought a complete set of local clothes, everything from the skin out.
We held a series of meetings with Station personnel over the course
of a week, mutually defining capabilities and requirements, laying
plans for access and escape, and determining what additional equip-
ment we would need. The Station photographed the Lunik crate
repeatedly so we would get a better idea of its construction. The
photographs showed that the sides and ends were bolted together
from within; the only way to get inside was through the roof. We
therefore bought more tools and equipment�ladders, ropes, a nail
puller, drop lights, flashlights, extension cords, a pinch bar, a set of
metric wrenches, screwdrivers, hammers.
After the exhibition the displays would be carried by truck from
the exhibition grounds to a railroad station and loaded onto freight
cars for their next destination. For the interception we had to choose
between the truck run and the rail haul. The initial preference was
for the latter; it seemed the freight car carrying the Lunik might most
easily be shunted onto a siding (preferably into a warehouse) for a
night and resume its journey the next morning. A detailed check of
our assets on the rail line, however, showed no good capability for
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The Lunik
doing this. Careful examination of the truckage to the station, on
the other hand, revealed a possibility.
Lunik on Loan
As the exhibition materials were crated and trucked to the rail
yard, a Soviet checker stationed at the yard took note of each item
when it arrived. He had no communications back to his colleagues
at the fair grounds, however. It was arranged to make the Lunik
the last truckload of the day to leave the grounds. When it left
it was preceded by a Station car and followed by another; their job
was to determine whether the Soviets were escorting it to the rail yard.
When it was clear that there were no Soviets around, the truck was
stopped at the last possible turn-off, a canvas was thrown over the
crate, and a new driver took over. The original driver was escorted
to a hotel room and kept there for the night.
The truck was quickly driven to a salvage yard which had been
rented for the purpose. This yard was open to the sky but had a
10-foot solid wood fence around it. With some difficulty the truck
was backed in from a narrow alley and the gates closed; they just
cleared the front bumper. The entire vicinity was patrolled by
Station cars with two-way radios maintaining contact with the yard
and the Station.
Action was suspended for half an hour. Everything remained quiet
in the area, and there was no indication that the Soviets suspected
anything amiss. The Soviet stationed at the rail yard waited for a
short time to see whether any more truckloads were coming, then
packed up his papers and went to supper. After eating he proceeded
to his hotel room, where he was kept under surveillance all night.
The markings team, in local clothes and without any identification,
were cruising in a car some distance from the salvage yard. We.
were now given the all-clear to proceed to the yard and start work.
We arrived about 730 p.m. and were let in by a two-man watch-
and-communications team from the Station. They had put all our
equipment and tools in the yard, and food and drink for the night.
Our first task was to remove enough of the crate's roof to get in.
It was made of 2-inch tongue-and-groove planks nailed down with
5-inch spikes. Two members of the team went to work on these,
perspiring and panting in the humid air. The effort not to leave
traces of our forced entry ,was made easier by the fact that the planks
had been removed and put back several times before and so were
already battered.
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The Lunik
While this was going on there was a rather unnerving incident.
When we had arrived at the salvage yard it was dark; the only lights
were in the salvage company's office. Now, with two men on top of
the crate prying up planks, street lamps suddenly came on, flooding
the place with light. We had a few anxious moments until we learned
this was not an ambush but the normal lamp-lighting scheduled
for this hour.
Photographers at Work
The other two of us were meanwhile assembling the photographic
gear and rigging up the drop lights with extension cords. We had
ladders up at each end of the crate, and when the planks were off
we dropped another ladder inside each end. The Lunik in its
cradle was almost touching the sides of the crate, so we couldn't
walk from one end to the other inside.
Half the team now climbed into the front�nose--end with one
set of photographic equipment and a drop light. They pulled the
canvas back over the opening to keep the flash of the strobe units
from attracting attention. They removed one of the inspection
windows in the nose section, took off their shoes so as to leave no
telltale scars on the metal surface, and squeezed inside. The payload
orb was held in a central basket, with its main antenna probe extended
more than half way to the tip of the cone. They filled one roll of
film with close-ups of markings on it and sent this out via one of
the patrolling cars for processing, to be sure that the camera was
working properly and the results were satisfactory. The word soon
came back that the negatives were fine, and they continued their work.
We on the other half of the team had tackled the tail section
Our first job was to gain access to the engine compartment by re-
moving the Lunik's large base cap; this was attached to its flange
by some 130 square-headed bolts. We removed these with a metric
wrench and by using a rope sling moved the heavy cap off to one side.
Inside the compartment the engine had been removed, but its
mounting brackets, as well as the fuel and oxidizer tanks, were still
in place. At the front end of the compartment, protruding through
the center of a baffle plate that separated the nose section from the
engine, was the end of a rod which held the payload orb in place.
A four-way electrical outlet acting as a nut screwed onto the end
of this rod was keyed by a wire whose ends were encased in a plastic
seal bearing a Soviet stamp. The only way to free the orb so as to
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MEC-42EL The Lunik
let the nose team into the basket in which it rested was to cut this
wire and unscrew the outlet.
We checked with Station personnel and were assured they could
duplicate the plastic, stamp, and wire. So we decided to go ahead
and look for markings in the basket area. We cut the wire and
passed it to one of the patrolling cars. The pair in the nose section
photographed or hand-copied all markings in the basket area while
we did those in the engine compartment. The Soviets, in removing
all electrical connections and gear, had overlooked two couplings in
the basket; these we took back to headquarters for detailed analysis.
Before we had finished, the new seal�wire, plastic, and stamp�was
delivered to the yard.
Returned in Good Condition
The exploitation of the Lunik was now complete; all that remained
was to put things back together and close up the crate. The first
job, re-securing the orb in its basket, proved to be the most ticklish
and time-consuming part of the whole night's work The baffle plate
between the nose and engine compartments prevented visual guidance
of the rod into position, and the rod was just long enough to screw
the'outlet on beyond the baffle plate. We spent almost an hour on
this, one man in the cramped nose section trying to get the orb into
precisely the right position and one in the engine compartment trying
to engage the threads on the end of a rod he couldn't see. After a
number of futile attempts and many anxious moments, the connection
was finally made, and we all sighed with relief.
The wire was wrapped around the outlet and its ends secured in
the plastic. The nose and engine compartments were double-checked
to make sure no telltale materials such as matches, pencils, or scraps
of paper had been left inside. The inspection window was replaced
in the nose section, and with some difficulty the base cap was bolted
into position. After checking the inside of the crate for evidence of
our tampering, we climbed out. The ladders were pulled up, the roof
planks nailed into place, and the canvas spread back over. We packed
our equipment and were picked up by one of the cars at 4:00 a.m.
At 5:00 a.m. a driver came and moved the truck from the salvage
yard to a prearranged point. Here the canvas cover was removed, and
the original driver took over and drove to the rail yard. The Soviet
who had been checking items as they arrived the previous day came
to the yard at 7:00 a.m. and found the truck with the Lunik awaiting
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The Lunik
him. He showed no surprise, checked the crate in, and watched it
loaded onto a flatcar. In due course the train left. To this day there
has been no indication the Soviets ever discovered that the Lunik
was borrowed for a night.
The results of analysis on the data thus collected were published
in a Markings Center Brief. 3 They included probable identification
of the producer of this Lunik stage, the fact that it was the fifth one
produced, identification of three electrical producers who supplied
components, and revelation of the system for numbering parts that
was used here and conceivably for other Soviet space hardware. But
perhaps more important in the long term than these positive intelli-
gence results was the experience and example of fine cooperation on
a job between covert operators and essentially overt collectors.
MCB No. 60-1, Analysis of Factory Markings on the Last Stage of the Soviet
Vehicle, 0
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