Soviet Engineers Turned Yuri Gagarin's Spacecraft Into A Spy Satellite

The soviet Zenit Spy satellite is essentially the Vostok spacecraft with the cosmonaut replaced by cameras. The Zenit design would fly over 650 times as a spy satellite up into the 1990's and spawn a few other science variants that flew for even longer. And all these designs share the 2.3meter spherical return capsule in common, a design chosen by Sergei Korolev to satisfy Kruschev's demand to fly humans in space, and the military's desire for spy satellites. Follow me on Twitter for more updates: https://twitter.com/DJSnM I have a discord server where I regularly turn up: https://discord.gg/zStmKbM If you really like what I do you can support me directly through Patreon https://www.patreon.com/scottmanley