FAS

FBIS Views the Future of Soviet Space (1987)

12.04.06 | 1 min read | Text by Steven Aftergood

“The USSR is publicly discussing an ambitious array of manned and unmanned space missions … planned over the next quarter century,” the CIA’s Foreign Broadcast Information Service reported in a 1987 internal assessment (pdf).

“Recent items in the Soviet press and scientific literature… have provided new details on Soviet space plans from the present through the end of this century,” said the FBIS analysis, which was marked “For Official Use Only.”

The Soviet Union ceased to exist in 1991. FBIS was absorbed into the DNI Open Source Center in 2004 2005.

See “Soviet Space Missions Planned Through the Year 2000,” Foreign Broadcast Information Service Science and Technology Perspectives, April 8, 1987 (4.5 MB PDF file, thanks to Allen Thomson).

Some other historical U.S. intelligence assessments of Soviet space programs can be found here.