NASA: Expert discusses plan to send spies 'into orbit'

Tensions between the US and the Soviet Union hit an all-time high during the Cuban Missile Crisis, in a 13-day standoff which most historians agree “brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster”. Just one year later, the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) project was born as part of the US Air Force’s human spaceflight programme proposed to succeed Corona – a series of strategic satellites operated by the CIA. Most likely a reaction to Soviet advances in space, MOL was to become a single-use laboratory on board a regular spacecraft, allowing US astronauts to send images back to Earth.