Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) pilot Francis Gary Powers, flying a Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, is shot down over the Soviet Union near Sverdlovsk. He is captured and later put on trial for espionage. The incident creates an international furor, and a superpower summit scheduled for later in the month is canceled. On Feb. 10, 1962, Powers will be exchanged for Soviet KGB agent Rudolf Abel.
The Space Force and NRO will build a large number of targeting satellites to go in low-Earth orbit, the USSF’s top intelligence officer said May 2—keeping with the service’s emphasis on proliferating its assets. For months now, the two organizations have been working on a program to develop satellites that will…