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Millions remember the countdowns, launchings, splashdowns and parades as the US raced the USSR to the Moon in the 1960s. Few know that both superpowers ran parallel covert space programs to launch military astronauts on spying missions. NOVA delves into the untold story of this top secret space race, which might easily have turned into a shooting war in orbit. NOVA gains first-time access to a surviving Soviet-manned spy station in a restricted Russian space facility, where an ex-cosmonaut demonstrates the high-powered spy cameras that were trained on US cities. With a cannon designed to destroy hostile satellites — or attack American astrospies — Almaz was probably the only manned spacecraft ever equipped for a potential space war.

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