Documents / FOIA release

/specialCollection/MissileGap/1961/1961-04-25.pdf

Central Intelligence Agency · 101 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is National Intelligence Estimate 11-5-61, Soviet Technical Capabilities in Guided Missiles and Space Vehicles. It was submitted by the Director of Central Intelligence and concurred in by the United States Intelligence Board on 25 April 1961. The estimate assesses Soviet surface-to-air, antimissile, air-to-air, air-to-surface, ballistic, ICBM, naval and space programs. It concludes that the first Soviet ICBM unit was probably operational around 1 January 1960. It also says there is no evidence the Soviets are developing offensive space weapons. It contains no UFO material.

  • p. 79 …The first attempt to launch a Venus probe succeeded in orbiting the earth satellite, Sputnik VII…
  • p. 81 …Unmanned Earth Satellites. Earth satellite vehicles offer significant advances over conventional techniques for acquiring information on…
  • p. 83 …Unmanned Earth Orbiting Flight: 15,000-20,000 pounds, low orbit Military satellites Communications Weather surveillance…
C00278407
BEST COPY
AVAILABLE Ficurc 36
SPUTNIK V ESCAPE CAPSULE
THE CAPSULE WITH THE TEST ANIMALS WHICH WAS CATAPULTED
FROM THE SHIP-SATELLITE AND WAS SAFELY RETURNED TO THL EARTH
Scientific Microphone
instrumentation
Storage
units
Animal
Animals
hermetically
Radio
direction
Intake -
exhaust valve
battery movement gauges sealed cabin Finder aerial TV camera
Air supply cylinder Automatic feeder Mirror
Catapult's firing mechanism
Radio direction finding block
Ventilation
device
Battery for heating
microbe test tubes
—71968-17'67—

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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 101 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.