In January 1956, the U.S. Air Force and CIA launched more than 500 unmanned balloons across the Soviet Union and China, each one carrying a camera, betting the jet stream could see what a spy plane couldn't.
Project GENETRIX lasted 27 days before Soviet fighters, a public wreckage display in Moscow, and a furious Eisenhower shut it down. Only a fraction of the balloons ever produced usable photographs. But the wind data, a radar-detection accident, and a recovery technique it left behind fed directly into the U-2 and, later, the CORONA spy satellite.
This is the story of the Cold War's strangest reconnaissance gamble, and the one that, in February 2023, came back around with the roles reversed.
Podden och tillhörande omslagsbild på den här sidan tillhör
Philip Thompson. Innehållet i podden är skapat av Philip Thompson och inte av,
eller tillsammans med, Poddtoppen.
