The Story Of How The CIA Stole & Returned A Soviet Spacecraft Before Being Noticed

60 years ago this week an exhibition of Soviet culture and technology was touring the world, and was packing up in Mexico City to head to the next Location. However one particular item was of great interest to the CIA who were able to divert it for a few hours during transit, disassemble and document it before returning it.
This mission helped the CIA determine which manufacturers were building important pieces of the Soviet space program and also determined the capabilities of the R-7 Launch vehicle.


The CIA's own account of the operation was declassified in 1995


And some of the analysis is documented here:


I was reminded that this is the 60th anniversary of this event by this tweet:

Noticed