Project GENETRIX (WS-119L). From bases in West Germany, Scotland, Norway, and Turkey, 516 high-altitude balloons are released and, at the mercy of the jet stream, head eastward across the Soviet Union. They are at an altitude of 18 kilometers. Only 44 will be recovered on the other side, and many will be shot down or lost. Soviet protests (as one might imagine) are strong. Eisenhower then decides to rely on U-2 planes flying at an altitude of 23 kilometers. They are discovered by the Russians because the transmission frequency of the American balloons happens to be the same secret frequency used by the Russian military. The blank film recovered by the Russians, highly resistant to the temperature changes at high altitude and a secret American military commodity, will be sent by the Soviets to photograph the far side of the Moon in 1959, since the Soviets did not have similar film. The first Soviet photographs of the far side of the Moon were taken with Kodak film. (The American camera was made by Kodak, Bill Jack Instruments, Chicago Aerial, Fairchild Camera, and Hycon Corporation.)
