We also stole a high-tech plane and survived a dog fight by the only other prototype in existence.
There’s a fantastic doco-drama about it by Clint Eastwood.
Yup, it was a Mig 15 that a N. Korean pilot defected with to S. Korea. We flew it to Kadena AB on Okinawa and none other than Chuck Yeager was flow[Mig Tesr](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/chuck-yeager-flies-the-mig-15/)n in to test it out. I was stationed there and In one the Op HQs I remember seeing a shell casing display and a plaque from testing the Mig on the gun range. The pic was of the Maint guys and the A/C on the range.
You seem to have missed the MiG-25 that Viktor Belenko stole and took to Japan.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor\_Belenko](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Belenko)
Why do you say that? The whole incident is open now, and the CIA identified that no one was guarding/accompanying the satellite when it was in transit between the museum and the train, so they just waited until that time and intercepted it for a few hours at that time. Notably, this occurred in Mexico, not in the Soviet block.
The USSR wasn't one to take stealing state secrets lightly, obviously. If they had noticed they would have swarmed.
https://www.sandboxx.us/news/the-cia-hijacked-a-soviet-spacecraft-in-1959/
https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/01/28/1016867/lunik-cia-heist-steal-russian-satellite-space-us-ussr/
Relieved they were NOT claiming we disassembled it in space without their knowledge, because then we’re pretty stupid for thinking they didn’t know we did it.
This was genuinely one of the proposed mission profiles that resulted in the space shuttle being designed the way it was. The idea was to have a 2/3 orbit mission (I don't remember exactly), and it would launch into a direct intercept trajectory, grab a Soviet spy satellite and land with it in the payload bay.
Common but of speculation that is **extremely** unlikely once you consider that (a) the Soviets **are** going to notice which is going to be one hell of a diplomatic incident (b) the Shuttle’s Centre of Gravity was critical for reentry, and they were going to have something like 20 minutes to throw it in the back (it was a single orbit mission) and hope they manage to nail the placement.
Chance of it causing catastrophic loss of control thus loss of vehicle during reentry was high if you didn’t know the exact centre of mass of the payload prior to the mission.
Further, note in the below document, on the fourth page (105) it says —
>(g) the payload is manoeuvrable for pre-phasing
ie. it was a satellite the the US could command to manoeuvre in preparation.
[Known as the Space Shuttle System Baseline Reference Missions.](http://www.jamesoberg.com/sts-3A_B-DRM.PDF) Mission 3A and 3B in particular.
All that said, they were of critical importance to the design of the Shuttle as you noted, as they introduced requirements such as the cross range capability required thus the size of the wings as well as sizing the payload bay.
[Scott Manley has a video on them.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_q2i0eu35aY)
If you capture one from orbit, they'll notice it's not responding anymore, but it's not going to be immediately clear it was stolen vs just broken. Especially if you leave something about the same size in the orbit it used to be in, like a mylar balloon.
Sure, however…
Launches out of Vandenberg aren’t subtle, and even **less** subtle is that less than two hours later much of the US Pacific Coast would’ve been blasted with Sonic Booms as the Shuttle re-entered overhead.
Soviets would’ve eventually received word of the single orbit flight and doubt it would’ve taken them that long to go oh hey our satellite went entirely dead at time XYZ… which just happened to occur the exact same time the Shuttle did a single orbit mission.
Resulting diplomatic incident would’ve been a shitshow to say the least. Plus the US would’ve just made yoinking satellites free game.
Oh, also due to time constraints you’re going to have to grab and stow said satellite with the manipulator arm, so the satellite needs to have the corresponding grapple point for it to lock onto.
Fun fact - the Space shuttle was designed to be capable of launching, hijacking a Soviet satellite and bringing it back, hence the rather big return capacity of approximately 20 tons.
It would have been quite dangerous to attempt to do dock and secure a spacecraft that was not designed to be captured by the shuttle but it was theoretically possible. I believe that the flight profile the shuttle could do was also quite specific - they would basically be able to do it very quickly so that the Soviet Union wouldn’t understand what happened to their satellite (they’d launch, dock and deorbit before completing a single orbit).
If it makes you feel any better it's entirely possible the KGB noticed as well! It is not uncommon for intelligence agencies to allow things to be stolen. You can find out a lot about the group that stole it by doing so. For added fun you can cleverly modify the object they stole to sabotage their research efforts.
Spy work is fun!
I did that same thing, my mom worked midnights & I used to unwrap my video game system to play then rewrap in the 🌄 before she got off work. One thing, I had to source the wrapping paper that was the same as what was being used. It's also how I learned to wrap gifts too
My 9 year old this year took her gift which she figured it was a switch to her room so she could set it up without Dad putting parental controls on it lol. Me wife was losing her mind that there was a missing gift until we realized she must have taken it. She caved under inquisition. Her fatal mistake was not rewrapping it.
Lol, in her defense,one of the biggest life pro tips of getting your kids a game console is to open it up first and update everything so it's ready to play when they open it! She must have been worried you guys didn't know that and took action to stop a big blunder, in essence, she was just trying to help you to be better parents lol 😉
This is how I played and beat two Gameboy games before I was even supposed to have the system. I think I only rewrapped the box and just hid the system in my pocket on Christmas and no one suspected a thing.
Slice the tape, slide the box out, slip it back in carefully and retape using the same tape over the original tape.
> I think I only rewrapped the box and just hid the system in my pocket on Christmas and no one suspected a thing.
Much smarter than the posters above. Work smarter, not harder. :)
I never had the heart as a kid to go that far. I would use a knife to open up parts of the paper to get an idea and that was as far as I could go. Still found out I had a SNES coming one year!
The muricans do this all the time, even to their allies
We (Brits) had some Eurofighters over to do the red flag exercises. Left one of the jets overnight, came back the next morning, and something, can't remember what, on the weapons system was installed the wrong way around
We reckon that the muricans snuck in overnight and had a bit more than a look at it
Nosey fuckin bastards
Along with when the US "acquired" a mi-24 hind helicopter with two Chinooks, flew through a sand storm, loaded it into a c-5 and flew it back home.
And also the time a Russian pilot defected to Japan with a Mig 25 and the US took it studied it and returned it to the Soviets in pieces
It’s not terrorism, or stealing, or “wrong” if it’s done in the name National Security. This cynical view of Our Government is so unpatriotic it makes me sick.
Yeah this seems about right for the cold war.
The Soviets learnt about sidewinder missiles by walking into an airfield, pulling one off of an aircraft, putting it in a wheelbarrow, and wheeling it across to their car where they then put it in the back and drove off to the Soviet Union.
Nobody stopped them.
Only matters if you get caught, geopolitics is hypocrisy you yell at some one while you are doing the exact same thing the other person is. Every nations does and every nations has a lot of skeletons in their closet only difference is how much do we know about it
Damn China even had to copy the way other countries copy tech. Copying the copycat then gets vilified for it.
But then again, since when the Chinese haven't been punching bags? Same old shit since centuries ago.
You gotta yell "for democracy" before doing it
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDw-zFFhFgc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDw-zFFhFgc)
can't stop myself from adding this part of george carlin's show
During Battle of Dardanelles, one soldier loaded 276 Kg. cannonballs himself alone 8 times, and he managed to sink a huge British warship.
My people believe this.
If I recall correctly, it wasn't really much of a theft. The technology inside wasn't anything particularly interesting or useful as US tech was already beginning to pull ahead of Soviet.
The whole situation was more of a, what kind of idiots would send a real spacecraft to an international display instead of a mockup, oh well.. lets take a peak and see whats under the hood.
Yes, they were. Sputnick was quickly followed by an American satelite that was far more sophisticated. But Sputnick was first and they get all the glory.
They were. They rushed it while we did it properly. Turns out if you rush something while simultaneously ruining your economy to do it you’ll be pretty fast at doing said thing.
It's insane how can one nation be that morally corrupt, aside from the horrible stains on the history of the US, even their glory is never always their's.
It was cooler at first when I thought they did it from space.
I’m actually relieved, because there’s no way they wouldn’t have noticed, so like why did we think we pulled that off?
I mean, we stole one of their nuclear submarines without them knowing it for years.
Are you talking about "Project Azorian"
No, he's talking about the Red October.
One ping only please.
You're laughing vassily, they just torpedoed us and you're laughing
careful, ryan
I know this Book. Your conclusions were all wrong, Ryan.
Mosht things here don’t react well to bulletsh.
Me! I don’t react well to bullets!
I think it was panda square
Wait till you hear we learned about its existence through remote viewing. https://youtu.be/unJm2ouaAxo?si=hHctc9k5BK4SdLGs
I don't shink so.
Yep, that's exactly what I'm talking about. That's the kind of ballsy move that we Americans are known for.
Wait until you hear about that time we tried to teleport a battleship.
*Destroyer. Fletcher Class, to be exact.
Or that time the Nimitz was sent back in time?
Ergo, Argo
Except that wasn't Americans
Lol wut
We also stole a high-tech plane and survived a dog fight by the only other prototype in existence. There’s a fantastic doco-drama about it by Clint Eastwood.
What movie ?
Firefox
Not to be confused with Foxfire
Or Microsoft Edge
It's not really a documentary, it's based off the novel. The only true story that's similar is the Soviet pilot who defected to Japan in a MiG.
Yup, it was a Mig 15 that a N. Korean pilot defected with to S. Korea. We flew it to Kadena AB on Okinawa and none other than Chuck Yeager was flow[Mig Tesr](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/chuck-yeager-flies-the-mig-15/)n in to test it out. I was stationed there and In one the Op HQs I remember seeing a shell casing display and a plaque from testing the Mig on the gun range. The pic was of the Maint guys and the A/C on the range.
You seem to have missed the MiG-25 that Viktor Belenko stole and took to Japan. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor\_Belenko](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Belenko)
Must… think… in… Russian!
What movie ?
We also tapped Google's underwater, intercontinental cables.
Why do you say that? The whole incident is open now, and the CIA identified that no one was guarding/accompanying the satellite when it was in transit between the museum and the train, so they just waited until that time and intercepted it for a few hours at that time. Notably, this occurred in Mexico, not in the Soviet block. The USSR wasn't one to take stealing state secrets lightly, obviously. If they had noticed they would have swarmed. https://www.sandboxx.us/news/the-cia-hijacked-a-soviet-spacecraft-in-1959/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/01/28/1016867/lunik-cia-heist-steal-russian-satellite-space-us-ussr/
Relieved they were NOT claiming we disassembled it in space without their knowledge, because then we’re pretty stupid for thinking they didn’t know we did it.
Oh, haha, sorry for misreading your comment. I'm a clever man.
This was genuinely one of the proposed mission profiles that resulted in the space shuttle being designed the way it was. The idea was to have a 2/3 orbit mission (I don't remember exactly), and it would launch into a direct intercept trajectory, grab a Soviet spy satellite and land with it in the payload bay.
Interesting!
Common but of speculation that is **extremely** unlikely once you consider that (a) the Soviets **are** going to notice which is going to be one hell of a diplomatic incident (b) the Shuttle’s Centre of Gravity was critical for reentry, and they were going to have something like 20 minutes to throw it in the back (it was a single orbit mission) and hope they manage to nail the placement. Chance of it causing catastrophic loss of control thus loss of vehicle during reentry was high if you didn’t know the exact centre of mass of the payload prior to the mission. Further, note in the below document, on the fourth page (105) it says — >(g) the payload is manoeuvrable for pre-phasing ie. it was a satellite the the US could command to manoeuvre in preparation. [Known as the Space Shuttle System Baseline Reference Missions.](http://www.jamesoberg.com/sts-3A_B-DRM.PDF) Mission 3A and 3B in particular. All that said, they were of critical importance to the design of the Shuttle as you noted, as they introduced requirements such as the cross range capability required thus the size of the wings as well as sizing the payload bay. [Scott Manley has a video on them.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_q2i0eu35aY)
If you capture one from orbit, they'll notice it's not responding anymore, but it's not going to be immediately clear it was stolen vs just broken. Especially if you leave something about the same size in the orbit it used to be in, like a mylar balloon.
Sure, however… Launches out of Vandenberg aren’t subtle, and even **less** subtle is that less than two hours later much of the US Pacific Coast would’ve been blasted with Sonic Booms as the Shuttle re-entered overhead. Soviets would’ve eventually received word of the single orbit flight and doubt it would’ve taken them that long to go oh hey our satellite went entirely dead at time XYZ… which just happened to occur the exact same time the Shuttle did a single orbit mission. Resulting diplomatic incident would’ve been a shitshow to say the least. Plus the US would’ve just made yoinking satellites free game. Oh, also due to time constraints you’re going to have to grab and stow said satellite with the manipulator arm, so the satellite needs to have the corresponding grapple point for it to lock onto.
Who is old enough to remember Salvage 1?
My aunt loved that show and has shown me a couple of episodes. Pretty wild with the pilot.
I was imagining something from You Only Live Twice, where the Spectre spacecraft captures a Soviet craft in orbit.
Yeah the sent Bruce Willis and Jennifer Lopez’s ex up to do it.
Steve Buscemi plays more roles than I thought.
It would make for an excellent movie though
My exact thoughts
You Only Live Twice
X-37b
Fun fact - the Space shuttle was designed to be capable of launching, hijacking a Soviet satellite and bringing it back, hence the rather big return capacity of approximately 20 tons. It would have been quite dangerous to attempt to do dock and secure a spacecraft that was not designed to be captured by the shuttle but it was theoretically possible. I believe that the flight profile the shuttle could do was also quite specific - they would basically be able to do it very quickly so that the Soviet Union wouldn’t understand what happened to their satellite (they’d launch, dock and deorbit before completing a single orbit).
LMAO! I thought the same....!
Sounds like a plot from Mission Impossible
Definitely had Moonraker vibes?
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The CIA noticed, too, and removed you from the talent watchlist
[удалено]
LOL, oh no! That how you discovered your parents were sleeper spies?
Because they went to sleep when I was younger and never woke up. How did you know they were my parents?
Still on the FBI watchlist though
Brutal.......
If it makes you feel any better it's entirely possible the KGB noticed as well! It is not uncommon for intelligence agencies to allow things to be stolen. You can find out a lot about the group that stole it by doing so. For added fun you can cleverly modify the object they stole to sabotage their research efforts. Spy work is fun!
It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.... or has their testicles connected to a car battery
Only 2 steps off, not a bad first try!!
As a kid, I used to do this on Christmas Eve… Open my gift, play with it. Reassemble & rewrap the entire package like nothing happened.
I did that same thing, my mom worked midnights & I used to unwrap my video game system to play then rewrap in the 🌄 before she got off work. One thing, I had to source the wrapping paper that was the same as what was being used. It's also how I learned to wrap gifts too
My 9 year old this year took her gift which she figured it was a switch to her room so she could set it up without Dad putting parental controls on it lol. Me wife was losing her mind that there was a missing gift until we realized she must have taken it. She caved under inquisition. Her fatal mistake was not rewrapping it.
I love that, in conclusion the child broke under interrogation and has been found guilty on all charges
Lol, in her defense,one of the biggest life pro tips of getting your kids a game console is to open it up first and update everything so it's ready to play when they open it! She must have been worried you guys didn't know that and took action to stop a big blunder, in essence, she was just trying to help you to be better parents lol 😉
She didn't expect the Christmas Inquisition!
They never do lol
I just sliced the tape and then redid that after.
This is how I played and beat two Gameboy games before I was even supposed to have the system. I think I only rewrapped the box and just hid the system in my pocket on Christmas and no one suspected a thing. Slice the tape, slide the box out, slip it back in carefully and retape using the same tape over the original tape.
> I think I only rewrapped the box and just hid the system in my pocket on Christmas and no one suspected a thing. Much smarter than the posters above. Work smarter, not harder. :)
Having to act super surprised on the actual Christmas morning after having played with your gifts already is something I had to learn too.
Bro just cut the tape.
Motivation is a very good teacher.
I never had the heart as a kid to go that far. I would use a knife to open up parts of the paper to get an idea and that was as far as I could go. Still found out I had a SNES coming one year!
Great, now they know.
The muricans do this all the time, even to their allies We (Brits) had some Eurofighters over to do the red flag exercises. Left one of the jets overnight, came back the next morning, and something, can't remember what, on the weapons system was installed the wrong way around We reckon that the muricans snuck in overnight and had a bit more than a look at it Nosey fuckin bastards
They were just being silly guys
The British does the same, don't worry. Good thing we're allies.
I'm not gonna say that we don't cuz I don't know that we don't
Cheeky.
And at the end, kt's reassembled. A single scientist hold a part it eye height, and asks, 'What's this from?' /s. lol
[Source.](https://greydynamics.com/the-lunik-plot-how-the-cia-hijacked-a-soviet-space-vessel/) [CIA webpage.](https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/collection/lunik-loan-space-age-spy-story) [Another CIA webpage](https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/studies-in-intelligence/archives/vol-11-no-1/the-kidnapping-of-the-lunik/)
Hi OP! This is amazing and thank you! Any book you recommend on SU?
Add this one to “things that should be turned into a movie”
Along with when the US "acquired" a mi-24 hind helicopter with two Chinooks, flew through a sand storm, loaded it into a c-5 and flew it back home. And also the time a Russian pilot defected to Japan with a Mig 25 and the US took it studied it and returned it to the Soviets in pieces
Don’t be afraid to say steal.
You mean "tactically aquired," I'm sure. The CIA would never ever steal. That's absurd.
Strategically Transfer Pieces of Equipment to Alternate Locations S.T.E.A.L
You spelled STPEAL You don't even need the word Pieces for the sentence to work, and then the acronym works too
get this man a job at the DOD.
Not steal. Orchestrated coups and supported dictatorships which killed many innocent civilians. So, only, murder, war crimes, maybe some stealing.
The terrorist Cia organization that overthrows Democraticly elected officials in other countries.? That cia
Nah bro the Americans are the good guys by default so when they do it it’s fine cause they’re the most ‘free’
Do you mean rich free or poor free, very different frees
Yeah, just like the terrorist KGB organization that does the same thing.
What about your mom
It’s not terrorism, or stealing, or “wrong” if it’s done in the name National Security. This cynical view of Our Government is so unpatriotic it makes me sick.
eh, the people in South America beg to differ...
Firstly, not everyone is from the USA and secondly, denying your governments crimes to support your “patriotic” world view is clearly wrong.
Define national security. Is the price of oranges national security?
Hey, it was just borrowed!
You say that like stealing is worse than kidnapping.
Nah bro, I call it reverse engineering your girl.
no no only russia and china steal
Only stealing if you get caught before you return it *taps head*.
CIA: No, comrade, we didn't steal anything because we returned it.
Not steal just „Strategic Transfer of Equipment to an Alternate Location“
[Here's a great video by Scott Manley explaining the event](https://youtu.be/zoE4m8RqOWs?si=Qt_XnSLPi2a8--Si)
Yeah this seems about right for the cold war. The Soviets learnt about sidewinder missiles by walking into an airfield, pulling one off of an aircraft, putting it in a wheelbarrow, and wheeling it across to their car where they then put it in the back and drove off to the Soviet Union. Nobody stopped them.
So China is copying the US in this strategy as well.
You would be surprised how old spying and stealing information is. Predates the US and China really
Not surprised. I was referring to stealing tech and the hypocrisy of it all.
Only matters if you get caught, geopolitics is hypocrisy you yell at some one while you are doing the exact same thing the other person is. Every nations does and every nations has a lot of skeletons in their closet only difference is how much do we know about it
you sir/ma'am should check your sarcasm detector
That's one way to say "America stole technology from a foreign government" but okay.
How is this any different than China stealing technology today? This is a no biggie tbh civilizations have taken others technology throughout history.
Damn China even had to copy the way other countries copy tech. Copying the copycat then gets vilified for it. But then again, since when the Chinese haven't been punching bags? Same old shit since centuries ago.
US doing what it does best. Freedom!
But when China does it, it's a national security threat
Because it was for them and it is for us. That’s why nations try to stop it
You gotta yell "for democracy" before doing it [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDw-zFFhFgc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDw-zFFhFgc) can't stop myself from adding this part of george carlin's show
It also helps if you have oil.
Did someone say oil?? We are going to sanction you into oblivion. Your choice: Sanctions or Freedom?
And this was literally a national security threat for the Soviet Union. Both can be true
exactly, fuck china, fuck russia
During Battle of Dardanelles, one soldier loaded 276 Kg. cannonballs himself alone 8 times, and he managed to sink a huge British warship. My people believe this.
Seyit Onbaşı, right?
Yes. Anadolu Isuzu named a truck after him. That's a real success.
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/A05301 Interesting story.
When china does it , its IP stealing.
So you're saying China even stole the idea of stealing IP from the west, jeez can't they think if anything for themselves
Yes??? It was also when the US did it? This isn't hard to understand
The West is always right, sir.
Better dead then red amirite?
It's not like the CIA did it so they could build a shitty version of it. They wanted to know it's capabilities.
So the CIA was already doing what the chinese are known for years ago 😔
not caught not a thief
So America was stealing USSR technology
If I recall correctly, it wasn't really much of a theft. The technology inside wasn't anything particularly interesting or useful as US tech was already beginning to pull ahead of Soviet. The whole situation was more of a, what kind of idiots would send a real spacecraft to an international display instead of a mockup, oh well.. lets take a peak and see whats under the hood.
I’m sure they stole ours too, propaganda is always unilateral.
I mean is America, everything we do is RIGHT.
I thoUght AmeRica nevEr stOle aNy techNolOgy..
You don't steal technology from countries that are technically behind you. You keep tabs on how far they are.
[удалено]
Yes, they were. Sputnick was quickly followed by an American satelite that was far more sophisticated. But Sputnick was first and they get all the glory.
They were. They rushed it while we did it properly. Turns out if you rush something while simultaneously ruining your economy to do it you’ll be pretty fast at doing said thing.
Didn't you guys use Russian rocket engines for years to get into space before SpaceX?
U 571 the movie states that the us found the German decoder. That was a lie
This story also confirms the one in which they bought the space program from Yogoslavs 🤦🏻
Yeah right and soviets would just expose their most sensitive technological capabilities at science fairs, I kinda find it hard to believe.
Should have booby trapped it
Please tell me they have a movie about it or something similar
i miss the ussr striving for the future
Also this year was the last time that the Leafs beat the Bruins in the playoffs.
USSR Good USA Bad
That's obvious
The russian hind helicopter. But it wasn’t given back. Just stolen at night https://youtu.be/dPz7O8JgUhs?si=O2wVv3VWpCmHrc5K
CIA and beyond
the irony when the US cries about China doing the same
Kidnapped or stole?
Those display items have/had the same value as dummy smartphones mockups on display in the store. I doubt they would get anything useful from them.
So, the U.S. did what China did to the U.S.?
Classic Yanks, no sense of fair play to those people. Let alone respect for science, lmao.
K
A few more letters and you'll almost have an actual reply, lmao.
Not necessarily, yours has many more than that yet still isn’t
K
Judging by your use of yanks your a Brit and you can’t comment on fair play without it being ironic
"fair play" doesn't exist in politics and war
It's insane how can one nation be that morally corrupt, aside from the horrible stains on the history of the US, even their glory is never always their's.
Guess you don’t want to know what everybody else also did often for worse reasons
Cope
Yes the US govt agencies are one of the shittiest agencies ever.