- mun-u Approved For Release 2005103115 e5n 1-8 25X1 a Soviet upper stage space vehicle TIIE KIDNAPINC 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 cllorts 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 hell 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 rst 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 Lunilc space vehicle lying on its side in a cabinwlike 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 in the US community suspected that they might and an operation was laid on to nd out After the exhibition closed at this location a group of intelligence Of cers had unrestricted access to the Lunik fer some 24 hears They A ES 33-39 A or Release 2005103115 SECRET Approved For R asb 2 5103115 Th i item from which the engine had been removed found that it was indved 1 proclnt-tion 2 anti elm-ironic components from tho vir-wpoint of probable per- its character tt'ttl most eieetrica 't'hcv xaininml it thoroughly iormanee taking monsurctn'ieiits h 25X1 isties and virinLr format l It Etittow had been copied from the Loni s during this operation but not W'ttl suf cient or precision to permit de nitive identIfieation was 39% the producer or determination oi med It 'i a accoss or '1 factor' therefore decided to try to get mot itI team - - - l I - I For tho nitimnte contribution of tins nztommtion am 1 sketch or the 1 311'1133 Intciligmee for the 83mm Knee lay Albert Vv'hc'olon and Sidney 2m 25X1 heal in Studies 4 13 1 ii in 9-11 I Approved For Release c 34 P78T0319 - 8 saga-mi Firms and i inbiems its tho wiuhition moved from one City to inotin-r an interventi- i shiphiilg In mii'vsi showed on item cnlieii motic'is of 11 won-w liinonsions wore npnr osinsnl't lv those oil the Loni -i nto This information was soot to the HA Station nonresl tin- ill 1 request to try to arrange sot-nrt- tit t't SS if the Loni should spin-mu On the basis of our txpi-i'imicc- at trade iairs anti other oshihilions we in Factory markings preferred zit-toss iiviorv thc- opening of on exhibition to the alternatives of examining it whiie in tho exhibition hall or nilior it had loft the grounds for another destination Soon thi Lonik crate lid arrive and was tailo-n to the exhibition grounds Tho pl'iysiczti situation at he grounds hotvi-vc r J tllt tl on n-coss to it prior to the show s opening 'l'hcn hiring thesizou In Soviets prr-vult-d their own 2r1 iionr guano for the displays so tin-r was no possibility of making a surreptitious night visit This Ii-it only one chance to get to it at some point ill-ltil it left tho t-xl'aihit'ioi grounds in the our tour man its-1m oi spoc inlists from the Joini Factory Mznkings Center had arrived Vz o brought along our spi- 'iZtiiXL tl photographic and hnsicr tools W r- ism-h vom out l tl lionght 1 onipiete set oi local ovvryiliing from the skin out Ve held d rit s Of meetings with Station pt-rsonln i over the t-z inrsv of a Week unituniiy de ning and rz-tlniri-inents inving plans for oc-r-i ss and escape and determining additional inent' we would need Tho Station the Llniile t-t'nte H psttedh so we would got at better iden of its Th - photogrnpio showed that the sides and ends wore lioitetl togetlu irom withrn the only Way to get inside was through the roof WT therefore nought more tools and ropes mil nnlier lights flashlights extension cords 1 pinch a oi oi metric wri-m-hes screwdrivers l'inmmers- After the exhibition the displays wouid he by rot-k iron the CXl'lil i1iiln grounds to a railroad station and iozttiod onto freight ears for their next destination For the interception we had to sum between in truck run and the rail haul The initiati proforma-o was for the lam-r it seemod the freight ear carrying line Lnnik might moo easily be shunted onto a siding preferably into it warehouse or 1 night and rc snme its ionrney the next morning A detailed ClH-t'ix' ri our assets on the rail line however showed no good cup- ihziitv for E ii -- muv Syl Approved For l 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 Lunilc 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-ell 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 dif culty 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 identi cation 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 7 30 pm 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 Approved For Release 200 703115 0 i 36 SEJRET lhe Lunik 311 saga r 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 of ce New with two men on top of the crate prying up planks street lamps Suddenly came on ooding 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 frontwnose end with one set of photographic equipment and a drop light They pulled the canvas back over the opening to keep the lash 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 lm 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 rst gob was to gain access to the engine compartment bv re-- moving the Lunik s large base cap this was at'tached 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 oil to one side Inside the compartment the engine had been removed but its mounting brackets as well as the fuel and oxidixer tanks were still in place At the front end of the cempartment protruding thrOugh the center of a ba le 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 red 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 5 EECRET 0001 8 3-7 'l SECRET Approved For let the nose team into the basket in which it rested was to out this him He showed no surprise checked the crate in and watched i wire and unscrew the loaded Onto a flatcar In due course the train left To this day then we checked with Station personnel and were assured they could has been no indication the Soviets ever discowrcd that the Loni - duplicate the plastic stan'ip and wire So we decided to go ahead was borrowed for a night and look for markings in the basket area We cut the wire and The results of analysis on the data thus collected were published passed it to one of the patrolling ears The pair in the nose section 25X'l in a 1Center Brief 3 They included probable identi cation 25X1 photographed or hand copied all Iin the basket area while of the pro ucer of this Lnnik stage the fact that it was the fifth 011 - we did those in the engine compartment r he Soviets in removing produced identification of three electrical roduccrs who sumlietl all electrical corinections and gear had overlooked two couplings in 25X1 components and revelation of the system that the basket these we took back to headquarters for detailed analysis was used here and conceivably for other Sovie space 151 ware But Before we had finished the new seal wire plastic and stamp was perhaps more important in the long term than these positive intelli- delivered to the yard gcnce results was the experience and example of line cooperation on a job between covert operators and overt - - Returned to Good Condition 3 1 MCB No 60 1 Analysis of on the Last Stage of the Soviet The ex loitation of the Lunik was now com lete all that remained Lumic Space Vehicle SECRET noses - I was to put things hack together and close up the crate The rst 25 lob re-securing the orb in its basket proved to he the most ticklish 25X1 and time-consuming part of the whole night s work The battle plate between the nose and engine compartments prevented visual guidance of the rod into position and the rod was just long encugh to screw the outlet on beyond the baille 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 couldn t see After a number of fiitiie attempts and many anxioas moments the connection was nally 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 di icultv 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 am 4 Woman-ii mi w At 5 00 am 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 am and found the truck with the Lunik awaiting Approved For Release 20 i03115 - 38 SE ET 3 39                     National Security Archive    Suite 701  Gelman Library  The George Washington University    2130 H Street  NW  Washington  D C  20037    Phone  202 994‐7000  Fax  202 994‐7005  nsarchiv@gwu edu