Project Genetrix, also known as WS-119L, was a program run by the U.S. Air Force,

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

, and the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

during the 1950s under the guise of meteorological research. It launched hundreds of surveillance balloons that flew over

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

, and the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

to collect intelligence on their nuclear capabilities. The Genetrix balloons were manufactured by the aeronautical division of

General Mills General Mills, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded ultra-processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in ...

. They were about 20 stories tall, carried cameras and other electronic equipment, and reached altitudes ranging from 30,000 to over 60,000 feet, well above the reach of any contemporary fighter plane. The overflights drew protests from target countries, while the United States defended its action.

History

Initiation and testing

Authorized by President

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

on December 27, 1955, Project 119L was the first

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...

use of the balloons that had been tested in previous projects, such as Project Moby Dick. It succeeded Project Mogul, Project Skyhook, and Project Grandson. Eisenhower viewed the reconnaissance efforts as defensive in nature, under the rationale of collecting intelligence on the Sino-Soviet bloc in case of a surprise nuclear attack against

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

. A cover story had been agreed upon to explain the balloons as being used for meteorological research if they were ever discovered. In 1955, a number of AN/DMQ-1 gondolas were launched from

Lowry Air Force Base Lowry Air Force Base (Lowry Field from 1938–1948) is a former United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) training base during World War II and a United States Air Force (USAF) training base during the Cold War. From 1955-1958, it served as the i ...

in Colorado as a test of the system. One was recovered years later in

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

Operation

Between 10 January and 6 February 1956, a total of 512 high-altitude vehicles were launched from the five different launch sites: Gardermoen, Norway; Evanton, Scotland; Oberpfaffenhofen and Giebelstadt, West Germany; and Incirlik, Turkey. 54 were recovered and only 31 provided usable photographs covering over 1.1 million square miles (2.8 million square km) of the Sino-Soviet bloc. Numerous balloons were shot down by the Soviets or blown off course. MiG fighter pilots learned that they could target the balloons at sunrise when they would dip into shooting range because the lifting gas would cool at night and become denser, reducing lift and causing the balloons to descend to lower altitudes.

Diplomatic protests and U.S. response

The missions led to diplomatic protests from many countries, including Albania, China, and the Soviet Union, for the balloon flights over their territories. The United States claimed that the project was a worldwide meteorological survey and compared the balloons to "miniature satellites" out of the way of commercial air traffic. Secretary of State John F. Dulles said that after the air force compiles the data, it would be contributed to the

International Geophysical Year The International Geophysical Year (IGY; ), also referred to as the third International Polar Year, was an international scientific project that lasted from 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War w ...

1957–58 for all countries to access. Asked if the United States had the right to send these balloons anywhere around the globe, he answered, "Yes, I think that we feel that way," saying that international law was obscure on "who owns the upper air".

Later developments

The Soviets recovered many of these balloons, and their temperature-resistant and radiation-hardened film would later be used in the

Luna 3 Luna 3, or E-2A No.1 (), was a Soviet spacecraft launched in 1959 as part of the Luna programme. It was the first mission to photograph the far side of the Moon and the third Soviet space probe to be sent to the neighborhood of the Moon. The hi ...

probe to capture the first images of the far side of the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

.Using film from U.S. spy balloons to take pictures of the Moon
/ref> Newly developed American spy planes, such as the U-2, would replace the Genetrix balloons in carrying out reconnaissance over denied airspace. Employees from the aeronautical division of General Mills would go on to found Raven Industries.

References