WEBVTT - Are there secret space programs? 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:04.760 From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is 0:00:04.840 --> 0:00:09.160 riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:20.560 learn the stuff they don't want you to know. Hello, 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:22.639 welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, my 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:27.000 name is Noel. And although I insisted on keeping our 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:29.440 show from getting to air at the time it should 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:33.600 because I had to play some dumb YouTube songs, I'm 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:38.880 still Ben, hopefully you're still you. And today we are 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:43.560 looking at something that touches on a lot of basis 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:45.680 for things that we have covered in the past. So 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:47.880 I figured maybe one of the best ways to start 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:50.080 is I wanted to ask you guys. I don't know 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:53.720 if we've ever talked about this on air, did you 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:55.160 ever want to be an asked or not? When you 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:58.520 grew up. I watched a lot of Nickelodeon when I 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:01.440 was a kid, and as you may or may not remember, 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:04.520 a lot of those shows were sponsored by space Camp, 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:07.600 and um, you know that was the big grand prize 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:09.319 if you went on Doubledare you got to go to 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:12.319 space Camp. And I think we all remember seeing the 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:15.760 commercial where these kids were just floating, you know, weightlifts, 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:18.319 and we're like, I want to go to there. That 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:22.680 seems totally awesome. Spoiler alert. My roommate went to space camp. 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:25.480 No such room, no such anti gravity room. You know 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:29.120 who else went to space camp? Here's that? This guy? Yeah? Yeah, 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:31.319 I was a young astronaut. I was fascinated by I 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:33.920 went to a couple of camps and I think Huntsville, 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:35.759 Alabama is where they have a lot of that stuff, 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:39.120 and it was it was great. I mean that was 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:41.440 my dream, man, I was I was either going to 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.480 be a marine biologist or an astronaut. What did you 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:47.840 think being an astronaut really meant? Did you Did you 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:51.320 have the concept of space scientists or were you thinking 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:53.960 you were going to be like, you know, battling extra No, 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:56.800 I was hoping scientists. That's that was the track I 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:59.160 wanted to be on. I didn't need to talk down 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:04.600 to your younger self. Their right, Yeah, I also know 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.000 you know this. I also went to space camp. In 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:11.880 the mass everybody went to space camp except me. So 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:16.919 I think we should take you to space camp right 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:20.880 af there we go to David Busters. Look, I'm not 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:23.760 joking about either of those. And I see your smirks 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:27.520 from across the table, Ladies, and gentlemen of the Internet, 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:32.359 our but the steamed co host by close friends outside 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:35.440 of work. I think I'm joking about David Busters and 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:39.560 the Space program. I'm not joking about either of those. 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:43.360 Visiting space related stuff is so cool. And No, you 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:47.440 are a meticulous person when it comes to your work 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:49.320 ethic and a lot of people might not know this 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:54.080 because you're You're very relaxed and personable and and chill. 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:58.079 When you know, when we're hanging out, we're talking from 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:01.080 time you do, we do know what buttons you have? 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:04.760 You guys, there's an adult space camp in Huntsville, Alabama, 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:07.519 and it is available and we can go Adult is 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:10.200 in for grown ups or adult is in like Showtime 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:16.000 after Dark? Maybe both. Hopefully it is uh for a 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:19.880 four day space camp. It's six dollars. That seems like 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:22.200 a lot of money. Did they cover the food? I 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:26.680 hope so all that freeze dried ice cream. Man cannot 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:30.440 live on freeze dried ice cream alone. But if you're 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:33.760 like us, then you probably at some point when you 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:36.320 were a kid, thought of being an astronaut. How cool 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:38.960 is it to go where no one has gone before? 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:42.800 And even even in adulthood, many of us retain this 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:48.160 fascination without space, right Uh. And we've seen the resurgence 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:52.240 of this with the whole mission to Mars Idea, all 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:54.400 the all of the volunteers who are coming out from 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:57.360 everywhere just saying yeah, I'll do it. And Ellen Musk, 0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:02.920 the founder of PayPal and and Tesla Motors, just declared 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:07.200 recently or reiterated again more definitively that he aims to 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:11.800 take some people to Mars. And who knows, maybe one 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:14.560 of us, maybe one one of us, whether listening or 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:18.640 podcasting today, could be on that ship. What we know 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:22.320 is that humanity has always been fascinated by space, and 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:24.960 it's um, it's up there with the ocean as the 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:30.799 least explored environment that we have encountered. We went House 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:34.760 of Works went to NASA's Goddard Space Center, uh several 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:38.520 months back to check out the successor to the Hubble telescope, 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:42.680 that James Webb telescope. And when we were there, we 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:44.520 have videos that will go ahead and plug that you 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:48.920 can find on the how Stuff Works YouTube channel, which 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:52.599 is you know, kind of the full disclosure. I'm in 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:56.000 a couple of them, the bad interviews. I'm the one 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:59.800 doing the bad interviews. But then our our our friend, 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:05.440 uh and maybe future guest host, right, no, Holly Fry, 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:09.440 Yeah is on there from stuff you missed in history class, 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:14.160 so you can learn more about the science of exploring space, 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:19.760 at least the publicly acknowledged stuff. Today's question is a 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:22.480 little bit different. But before we go into that, let's 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:26.960 let's talk about some of the things we know about 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:34.040 publicly acknowledged space exploration today. Like, first off, it's expensive, Yeah, 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:38.719 it's crazy expensive in the cost of development and five 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:42.880 years of operation was estimated to be eight point eight 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:46.960 three five billion dollars with a B for the James 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.560 Webb for this telescope to you the one, yeah, the 0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:52.080 one that you got to go look at and when 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:54.679 you were in there, it's this massive facility with people 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:59.320 just working around the clock. Just I mean, because not 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:01.440 only did the old the thing, you have to test 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:05.640 it so vigorously for years because once it's up there, 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:08.000 it's up there. Yeah, what are you gonna do? Right? 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:11.440 And then there's you know, there's a huge history of 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:15.000 of of space exploration, right, the space race. May have 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:18.080 heard that term before, right, Cold War USSR versus the 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:22.200 United States began in nineteen fifty five, but it continues 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:24.680 today and there are more people in the game. Yes. So, 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:30.120 as of they're an estimated seventy different state sponsored space agencies, 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:35.400 thirteen of those have a known ability to launch vessels 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:39.280 out into space. Okay, that makes sense. So what we're 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:43.039 saying there is that of those seventy, the majority of 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:47.960 the agencies don't themselves have the ability to launch their 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:51.600 own thing. They partner with other agencies like NASA, that 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:56.360 is the idea. So of those thirteen, though, only six 0:06:56.400 --> 0:07:00.320 have what's known as full launch capability. That means they 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:02.719 can actually get back some of the things they shoot 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:06.040 out to space, like recovering satellites for example. I mean, 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:08.960 it's not a one and done scenario where you put 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:10.520 it out there and we're never going to see that 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:15.920 guy again. Um. They can actually deploy cryogenic rocket engines um. 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:20.160 And they can also operate probes remotely. Yeah. So once 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:22.320 it's once it's out there in space, you've got to 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:24.680 handle on how to make it work. Or you can 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:32.960 drop a vehicle remotely right to voyage around Mars. Uh. Yes, 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:35.560 that that's strange that when you think of the rate 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:40.440 of attrition there seventy different agencies, thirteen can put something 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:44.480 up and six can do something effective with it. Yeah, 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:47.720 so six out of all the countries on Earth. And 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:51.560 we know, of course that state sponsored agencies are not 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:53.720 the only ones in the game that you alluded to 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:58.520 this earlier, right. Oh yes, billionaires and well not just billionaires, 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:01.400 a lot of billionaires though, and their private corporations are 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:05.760 getting into this, this whole space game we saw. Let's 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:09.440 see space X. That's the again founded by Elon Musk, 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:13.000 like you you mentioned. They just launched another satellite, the 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:15.400 second in just a couple of weeks here. I think 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:18.640 it was a Thaie communication satellite. Previously there was a 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:22.040 Japanese satellite that went up. Um. And the crazy thing 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:24.320 about space x is that they can, like you're saying, 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:27.559 reusing the materials, they bring their entire rocket back down 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:30.960 and landed. Someone looks made up. It's like this vertical 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:34.600 rocket coming down onto a little like a drone boat, 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:37.600 drone platform out in the middle of the ocean. It's bizarre. 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:40.000 It looks like someone played the clip in reverse and 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:42.600 it launching. It's very strange. And I mean, all of 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:45.040 this is so fascinating because we're entering a time now 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:47.560 where I mean this in the past has been in 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:52.840 the realm exclusively of big government agencies that have all 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:55.000 of this budget for this stuff. And as we know, 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:59.439 you know, focus on space exploration has kind of waxed 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:02.400 and waned over the years a bit, and now it's 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:06.760 kind of sitting squarely in the realm of these billionaires 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:09.320 who are able to raise their own money, use their 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:13.280 own capital to do their own research, and it seems 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:16.000 like some of them are doing a pretty good job. Well, yeah, 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:19.080 the day we're recording this, Jeff Bezos is Blue Origin. 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:25.160 Another one they just launched an unmanned aircraft are excusing spacecraft. 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:29.400 Uh it's a prototype rocket that's apparently supposed to be reusable, 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:32.360 just like the other ones, and they again landed it 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:35.360 back on Earth. So another company with another billionaire in 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:39.960 Bezos is the Emperor of Amazon. And those aren't the 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:46.359 only private space flight or uh, space ears, space space tycoons. 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:48.880 I can't call them space tycoons yet. How about space 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:54.959 katiers space gatiers perfect like Rocketeer. Sure you don't seem 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:58.880 as happy with that. I like it all right? Who 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.880 else is in this game? Oh, you've got Virgin Galactic, 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:07.360 another billionaire there, Bigelow Aerospace, X Core Aerospace, Orbital Sciences. 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:09.520 I mean, the list goes on. There's ARCA, they're they're 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:12.720 all kinds of other ones that are from different countries. 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:15.280 Sometimes a lot of these are based in the US, um, 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:18.160 but they're they're all over the planet, right, and just 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:20.559 being based in the US, of course, does not restrict 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:25.560 their operations there. There are optimal places around the globe 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:30.720 from which to launch something into space, so they travel 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:34.679 widely there on a world tour. So given the lessons 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:39.880 learned from the private entities and from the history of 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:45.680 state sponsored space agencies, we found, uh, we found some 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:49.280 some pretty interesting things about space travel. If you are 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:52.520 interested in the idea of space travel, we'd also like 0:10:52.600 --> 0:10:57.240 you to check out how Stuff works other podcast particularly well, 0:10:57.360 --> 0:10:59.800 I don't know, I think almost everybody has something of 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:03.720 space travel. Absolutely. Our friends over at Stuff Mom never 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:07.760 told you have done some great work on female astronauts, 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:12.199 women in the airspace industry in general. Yeah, and so 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:15.560 so it goes across the board. Every every podcast we 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:19.360 have as something about space has done a couple of things. Yeah, 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:25.679 yeah as well. So we did lunar rovers. So what 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:29.640 we found is that despite the evolution of space travel, 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:34.679 there's still a few things that are true. And here 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:37.880 they are just across the board. I'll go first. It's 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:43.240 terrifyingly easy for something to go wrong, frighteningly easy. For example, 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:47.000 the Challenger disaster, and that's not that's not that's just 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:50.880 one that's in the public sphere. There are multiple classified 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:54.280 accidents that occurred during the Soviet space programs. You've learned 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:59.200 about a few of those cosmonauts, and we have done 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.720 work before on a lost cos not theories, and I 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:05.600 think Jonathan Strickland from tech Stuff has covered it. But 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:09.800 definitely people died in training, and as we mentioned earlier 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:13.520 podcasts were literally erased from history. There's some fascinating stories 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:16.200 in within that topic, so I would encourage you to 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:19.080 go check that out if you're listening to this. So 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:22.120 a big part, like what I was leading to earlier, 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:25.800 that makes this so difficult to do, is that these voyages, 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:30.160 this equipment, everything that goes into doing this stuff incredibly 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:34.120 prohibitively expensive. So the average cost of a man space 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:38.120 launch was estimated to be four hundred and fifty million 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:41.600 dollars in twenty eleven. That's for a single launch, and 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:44.080 that's by NASA. That's by NASA. And then the overall 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:46.840 cost for a shuttle's thirty year lifespan. So if you're 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:49.520 in it for the long haul, you're looking at a 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:54.319 one hundred and nineties six billion dollar tab, which is 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:57.800 adjusted for inflation for for right now. But still, how 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:02.520 is that a number? That's that's amazing. But then there's 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:07.880 there's a third thing here about every kind of space endeavor, 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:11.080 which we were startled to find in some of our 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:13.880 earlier work. Yeah, how in the heck do you keep 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:18.240 it a secret that you are using fuel, very loud, 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:23.720 very bright, uh fuel to launch things up into and 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:26.720 beyond the atmosphere? How do you keep that a secret? 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:29.400 And then how do you keep a satellite a secret? 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:32.120 And when it's orbit in the sky, which at this 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:37.680 point is still uncensored. Today's question, ladies and gentlemen, do 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:44.120 world governments and corporations have secret space programs? Given the cost, 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:48.760 given how incredibly difficult it is. It's like, I'm gonna 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:50.679 try to make a video game reference. Tell me if 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:53.480 I get it. It's like if there were Dark Souls fourteen, 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:57.720 does that work? I? Think so. I mean, so it's 0:13:57.720 --> 0:13:59.880 a little different, but I'm gonna go Souls is the 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:03.800 tough one, right, Yeah, that's the tough one. I'm so 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:07.760 out of it. Well, yeah, because in a way, every time, 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:10.920 if you really want to get into the space program, 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:13.480 much like if you really want to get into Dark Souls, 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:19.720 you basically have to take up the controller and attempt 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:22.080 as many times as you possibly can, and you'll get 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:24.480 things right as you go along, little by little by 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:27.080 little by little. But ultimately you can't just jump in 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:28.800 and get the whole thing right. You can't just win 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:32.920 by starting the space race. I'm sorry that I gave 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:35.480 you this albatross of the metaphor. I'm trying to work 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:38.640 with it. Let's just let it go. I apologize. I 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:40.840 guess what I'm saying is ultimately you end up throwing 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:44.280 the controller against the wall in both cases. I guess, Yeah, 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:47.560 that's familiar, the controller or the or the lander. Right, 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:52.280 what we know for sure that we know for sure 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:58.600 that secret space programs did exist, and historically the origins 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:01.800 and really space programs or shrouded in secret. Began his 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:07.760 research into rocketry and rockets. The idea of a rocket 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:13.560 is ancient dates all the way back to the first 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:17.320 principles essential to rocket flight came from the writings of 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:21.760 a Roman named ALUs Gellius, who told a story about 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:24.800 a Greek guy named Arcitas who lived in a city 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:28.360 called Tarantum is now part of southern Italy, somewhere around 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:32.760 four b C. According to this story, he uh he 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:36.440 made a pigeon out of wood and amused people by 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:41.760 flying it using the principles of rocketry, the action reaction principle, 0:15:41.840 --> 0:15:44.680 which wasn't a scientific law until the seventeenth century. The 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:48.320 point is, maybe this metaphor is not or this excuse me, 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:50.960 comparison is not that far off, because you were You 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:55.960 are absolutely right about baby steps. So we know that 0:15:56.440 --> 0:16:01.400 people began working on rockets way before they thought about 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:07.280 taking them to space. But we know that given the 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:11.760 research of rocketry and the enormous jump it had during 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:16.440 World War Two, the foundations of the US rocketry programs, 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:19.920 the U s s R, which was the big the 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:23.200 big other agency at the Cold War UH and what 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:27.040 ultimately became a space program, what ultimately lead to atomic bombs, 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:31.040 involved some shady stuff, in particular something known as Operation 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:34.680 paper Clip. Yes, that's when Nazi scientists and scientists from 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:38.920 other non allied countries were brought to both to the 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:42.680 to the United States, to the United Kingdoms and other 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:45.800 parts of the world where they were secreted away. You know, 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:50.440 these are people who were working on specialized projects for 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:54.160 let's say, for bad people doing bad things like then 0:16:54.240 --> 0:17:00.120 or Brown. Yeah, but they had an amazing amount of 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:05.000 research and intelligence, and strategically, I guess it just made 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:07.919 a lot of sense to keep them around and just 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:12.960 to jump on the the rocketry programs that the world had. 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:17.159 It was all about launching a missile or launching, you know, 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:19.639 a bomb. How do I get this bomb all the 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:22.720 way over here where I wanted to explode and you know, 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:24.919 not have to take a ship over there or a 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:28.800 plane or something. That's that is why we have space flight. 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:30.960 It's because we wanted to figure out how to more 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:35.320 effectively bomb people from far away, which is kind of 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:38.440 strange to think about. And the US government as a 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:41.240 history of this as well. I mean, the CIA actually 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:44.160 ran a secret satellite surveillance network A have a fun 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:47.359 thing to say three times fast from fifty nine to 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:52.520 nineteen two, where and they spied on the USSR and 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:55.760 the People's reblic of China from you guessed it out 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:58.520 of space UM. And this is a story I love 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:01.040 so much because it just goes to know the scrappy 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:04.719 nature of you know, getting things done by the U. S. Government. 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:08.600 So the UM satellites didn't actually have the ability to 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:14.120 transmit photographs remotely, you know, through uh, through the air 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:17.880 right the sixties, what's what's what's the what's the fix there? Well, 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:21.719 they actually had negatives and they would drop the negatives 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:28.119 from space. Yeah, I'm picturing little parachutes and I just 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:31.159 don't even There are pictures you can see pictures and 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:34.320 even diagrams on well Wikipedia's where I found them of 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:37.680 the Corona that we're talking about, the Corona program. Uh yeah, 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:41.560 you can see just just how old fashioned it looks 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:44.399 and feels. How just can't imagine how who do they 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:46.399 send out? What poor sucker do they send out to 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:49.120 find these things? And where's the film adaptation to that? 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:54.080 I bet there's maybe there's a classified script they're still somewhere. Yeah, 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:56.160 But they spent a lot of money on that as well. 0:18:56.440 --> 0:19:00.119 According to some former officials, the total estimated cost the 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:04.000 program was eight hundred and fifty million dollars, which doesn't 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:06.720 sound like that much compared to you know, four d 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:10.000 fifty for one launch, right, but you know we're talking 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:14.680 nineteen sixties dollars when it was mostly in use, right. 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:19.679 And I don't know if they factored in, you know, 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:25.560 like developing the film, developing negatives, got interns to do that, right, Right, 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:30.359 they just went to a photo mat um something. And 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:32.680 they weren't the only ones doing it, and and uh, 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:38.800 Corona was not the most um widespread of these sorts 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:41.520 of programs. Oh yeah, the Russian side had theirs. Their 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:44.199 own thing is Zenet I think seen it. I'm not 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:46.480 sure exactly how to pronounce it. But they were doing 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:50.479 photo reconnaissance in the same way, um, but they were 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:51.880 doing it a lot more I think. I think their 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:54.560 their program was a lot more extensive. Yeah, they had 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:59.439 over five hundred Zenet satellites flown, which makes it to 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:03.399 this day the most numerous type of satellite and the 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:10.960 history of space exploration. Yeah, oh yeah, these were launched. Okay, 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:14.320 So here's here's a weird anecdote that does apply to this. 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:18.280 So we all know what a tank is, right, Uh? Tank? 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:23.480 In war, they're called tanks and the old story goes 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:27.920 because when they were being shipped around in England or 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:32.600 around Europe to avoid prying eyes, they were created and 0:20:32.640 --> 0:20:36.680 called water tanks, and so that became their nickname. Going 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:40.239 to our earlier point about how difficult it would be 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:45.159 to secretly launched something from space, Uh, these things. The 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:49.760 Russians and the US accepted that the other side would 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:53.760 notice when they sent something into space, so they labeled 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:57.800 them as different things or put them in different programs 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:00.479 so that they seemed like they were a pushing a 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:04.720 different purpose. And as as you said, oh yeah, these 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:09.600 these were probably above top secret level, some kind of 0:21:09.640 --> 0:21:14.719 compartmentalized need to know basis intelligence where you know, imagine 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:19.640 that you're the president of a country and then some 0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:23.320 suit comes up to you one of your advisors and says, 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:29.480 we have evidence that shows that we need to, you know, 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:32.320 invade this country now or send a force here. You 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:34.240 go ye, and they say we can't tell you, and 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:36.360 then you go, but I'm the president, and they say, 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:41.480 I know, Mr President. And then eventually you're persuasive enough 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:45.719 that somebody from uh you know, the CIA or the 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:49.640 n s A or some other alphabet agency just sort 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:54.800 of slides a blurry photograph across across the desk at you, 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:57.760 and that's how you find out how did you get 0:21:57.800 --> 0:22:01.000 focused on this? So yeah, how wait? Wait? And I 0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:03.879 have to said, okay, the way these satellites look, the 0:22:04.040 --> 0:22:07.639 Zenit programmed satellites. You can again go on to Wikipedia. 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:09.320 You can look at a picture of one of these. 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:13.480 It looks like a large sphere that has some optics 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:16.560 kind of and glass pointing out of it, and then 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:20.040 a little I don't know if in this picture that's 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:23.840 being shown, if it's just sitting on a holder. Because 0:22:23.840 --> 0:22:26.480 it is a giant sphere. I think that's probably the case. 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:28.760 They just put the sphere down on a on a base. 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:32.000 But I don't know. If you guys remember the stories 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:35.200 coming out a couple maybe a month ago about the 0:22:35.240 --> 0:22:39.680 giant spheres found in Bosnia. This is a complete tangent here, 0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:46.040 but giant spheres found. There's supposedly these huge stone spheres 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:49.639 and this one guy found one and he's claiming that 0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:51.840 it's all these different things, and there have been numerous 0:22:51.880 --> 0:22:57.480 explanations about what it is. It looks exactly like a 0:22:57.600 --> 0:23:01.120 Zenit satellite, one that maybe just ended up in Bosnia, 0:23:01.880 --> 0:23:04.119 I don't know. That's interesting because you have to wonder 0:23:04.520 --> 0:23:07.480 what kind of a crazy game that that is, the 0:23:07.560 --> 0:23:11.320 play where they're like, well, the satellites coming down, Agent Brown, 0:23:11.720 --> 0:23:14.680 you have to be a Kazakhstan in twelve hours. Yeah, 0:23:14.760 --> 0:23:16.960 And how the heck can you get this giant sphere 0:23:17.000 --> 0:23:20.720 onto a like a flatbed truck or something. Oh? Wow, 0:23:20.840 --> 0:23:24.600 very carefully, my friend, Very carefully, and sadly, I don't 0:23:24.640 --> 0:23:26.400 I don't know if you could make it to Kazakhstan 0:23:26.440 --> 0:23:31.840 in twelve hours from So we're just luck here, all right. 0:23:31.880 --> 0:23:34.119 So we're gonna have to go out to UH to 0:23:34.160 --> 0:23:36.639 one of our other operatives, which is weird because I 0:23:36.720 --> 0:23:41.080 just hate Darren. He's such a He's been slipping. He's 0:23:41.240 --> 0:23:46.160 Darren has been slipping. And if you are listening, Darren, 0:23:48.160 --> 0:23:53.280 you're fired. Sorry Darren. Wow, we just made up Darren 0:23:53.320 --> 0:23:57.080 and fired him in the space a few minutes. Okay. 0:23:57.240 --> 0:24:01.040 So we know that these programmes existed, and these are 0:24:01.119 --> 0:24:05.119 just a few, just to show that multiple kinds of 0:24:05.160 --> 0:24:09.199 programs have have existed. One of the first aims of 0:24:09.240 --> 0:24:15.119 this was to achieve supremacy in the space race, and 0:24:15.400 --> 0:24:20.560 the first from from the first satellite launched by humankind 0:24:20.680 --> 0:24:24.200 spot Nick, the U S s R and the U S. 0:24:24.240 --> 0:24:28.160 We're trying to outdo each other and to get superior surveillance. 0:24:28.400 --> 0:24:32.320 Corona probably wouldn't have happened as soon as it did 0:24:32.760 --> 0:24:36.920 had a YouTube spy plane not been shot down earlier. 0:24:37.480 --> 0:24:39.399 And so they said, well, we'll just go higher on 0:24:39.480 --> 0:24:44.000 space where they can't reach us. And then immediately people 0:24:44.080 --> 0:24:48.440 began working on how to kill how to kill a satellite. 0:24:48.920 --> 0:24:54.840 So the question is, can we from this historical precedent, 0:24:55.600 --> 0:25:01.919 can we say that secret space programs continue today or 0:25:02.040 --> 0:25:05.000 was this just some cold war thing? I'm not sure, 0:25:05.800 --> 0:25:08.120 but we'll figure it out right after a quick break. 0:25:19.560 --> 0:25:25.640