U-2 flight path in Life 1960/5/16

U-2 designer Kelly Johnson

U-2 Crisis

• photo and description of U-2 from Air Force Museum

May 1 - Gary Powers' U-2 shot down by SAM-2 missile

May 3 - "weather plane" cover story released to press

May 6 - U.S. named Powers as pilot of the "weather plane"

May 7 - Ike learned from Malik slip that Powers was alive

• 1st admission made that U.S. spied on Russia
• but no apology or admission of presidential responsibility

• U-2 wreckage still on display at the Central Army Museum in Moscow

• with secret camera in nose, unknown to Ike

May 16 - Khrushchev cancelled Ike's Moscow visit; refused any summit agreements

May 19 - Ike left Paris after Khru shook fist

May 22 - Midas 2 launched -1st infrared spy satellite

July 1 - RB-47 shot down

Aug. 10, - Discoverer 13 launched

• first successful test, after 12 failures, of the CORONA system approved by Eisenhower Feb. 7, 1958, to use rocket-launched satellites with cameras that returned film to earth in a cannister.

• the satellite "orbited the Earth for a day, and returned its canister to earth, where it was snatched out the air by a specially equipped aircraft on August 19. The camera carried on that flight would be retroactively designated the KH-1 (KH for KEYHOLE) and was cable of producing images with resolution in the area of 25-40 feet - a far cry from what would be standard in only a few years. It did yield, however, more images of the Soviet Union in its single day of operation than did the entire U-2 program" (quote from U.S. Satellite Imagery, 1960-1999 by Jeffrey T. Richelson)

Aug. 19, 1960 - Powers made confession during trial

• "deeply repentant and profoundly sorry"
• jailed in Russia until exchanged for Rudolf Abel in Feb. 1962

Sep. 21- Khrushchev arrived in U.S. for 25 days

• to attend United Nations session
• Nehru, Nasser, Tito, Sukarno plus 14 new nations
• Khrushchev pounded table during Macmillan's speech
• Khrushchev embraced Castro

Nov. 4, 1960 - Kennedy defeated Nixon 34,227,096 to 34,108,546