Chapter 3
135
CO5653421 UNCLASSIFIED
DETACHMENT B FLIGHTS
The most important series of overflights in the summer of 1957 were
those that Detachment B staged to gather intelligence on the Soviet
Union's guided missile and nuclear programs. President Eisenhower
had a roved these overflights at the meetin a on 6 Ma 1957
(0 12958 1.6(dli1l>10101010425Yrs
(Si
rouu t in eta t pi ots an ground
crews to prepare or missions over the Soviet Union and the People's
Republic of China (PRC) beginning on 4 August (Operation SOFT
TOUCH). During a 23-day period, these aircraft made nine flights:
seven over the USSR and two over the PRC. Although one of the
seven flights over the USSR was a failure because the camera
malfunctioned after taking only 125 exposures, the remaining mis-
sions over Central Asia were a complete success, producing a bo-
nanza of information that kept scores of photointerpreters busy for
more than a year.8-
The 5 August flight, a dirty bird piloted by was
the first to photograph the major Soviet space launch taciitty east of
the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan. None of the mission planners was certain
just where the range was located, so the U-2 pilot followed the rail
lines in the area. As a result, the plane did not pass directly over the
rangehead and obtained only oblique photography.
Although known in the West today as Tyuratam, this missile in-
stallation had no name when it was first photographed in August
1957. In preparation for a briefing to President Eisenhower on the
SOFT TOUCH photography, Dino Brugioni, an assistant to PID chief
Arthur Lundahl, examined all the existing maps of the area to see if
he could find a place name for the missile base. Only one map, made
by the Germans during World War II, showed a community in the vi-
cinity of the missile facility. The settlement's name was Tyuratam,
which means "arrow burial ground" in the Kazakh language, and this
OSA History, chap. 12, pp. 19-20 (TS Codeword); NPIC History, vol. I. pp. 159-161
(S).
UNCLASSIFIED
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