When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Future

Moon Talk: Did Tito Secretly Hand Over Yugoslav Space Program To JFK?

An upcoming documentary lays out an intriguing new twist in the historical saga of the Cold War space race: Yugoslavia had secretly made major advances in space travel technology. Did Yugoslav leader Tito make a pact with President Kennedy that would chan

USSR stamp for the 90th Birth Anniversary of Josip Broz Tito in 1982.
USSR stamp for the 90th Birth Anniversary of Josip Broz Tito in 1982.

*NEWSBITES

The history of space exploration is full of conspiracy theories – and a new one is in the making about a country that didn't seem to have any association with space research: the former Yugoslavia.

The country's president for life, Josip Broz Tito, was the subject of much speculation during his lifetime. Many thought he was a spy for the Russians, others suspected he worked for the Americans. And it was under his leadership that in Bosnia, in 1957, construction began on Europe's largest underground airport.

The high-security facility called "Objekat 505" could even resist nuclear attack. It was said to have cost over $6 billion, which seemed a lot for a mere airport. Was Tito simply extravagant, or was there perhaps more to the site than met the eye?

"Houston We Have a Problem" is the title of a documentary film by Slovenia's Zige Virca, due to be released in early 2013, that gives conspiracy theorists new fodder.

According to Virca, a Croatian-born rocket engineer named Hermann Potocnik published a book in 1929 called The Problem of Space Travel: The Rocket Motor in which he develops concepts for building satellites and space stations. The association for space travel that Wernher von Braun belonged to drew up the space station concept in 1952 based on Potocnik's studies.

Stories made the rounds that there was a lot more useful information in Potocnik's lost diaries. The CIA had searched for them, but the Yugoslavian security services were faster – and thus was the country able to forge their own space program of which "Objekat 505" was part and parcel.

By 1961, Tito was thought to have the technology needed to fly to the moon. Because the U.S. under no circumstances wanted to lose the space race with the Soviet Union, Virca says that the Kennedy administration handed over major cash in development funds to Tito in exchange for the Yugoslav space program.

A year later, Kennedy announced that the U.S. would shortly be flying to the moon, and the Americans managed to get there before the Russians did. Meanwhile, Tito traded in his partisan's uniform for elegant tailoring, Yugoslavia's economy exploded... and the rest is history.

Read the full story in German by Filip Gaspar

Photo - Wikipedia

*Newsbites are digest items, not direct translations

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Society

Shakira, Miley Cyrus And The Double Standards Of Infidelity

Society judges men and women very differently in situations of adultery and cheating, and in divorce settlements. It just takes some high-profile cases to make that clear.

Photo of Bizarrap and Shakira for their song “Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53”
Mariana Rolandi

-Analysis-

BUENOS AIRES — When Shakira, the Colombian pop diva, divorced her soccer star husband Gerard Piqué in 2022, she wrote a song to overcome the hurt and humiliation of the separation from Piqué, who had been cheating on her.

The song, which was made in collaboration with Argentine DJ Bizarrap and broke streaming records, was a "healthy way of channeling my emotions," Shakira said. She has described it as a "hymn for many women."

A day after its launch, Miley Cyrus followed suit with her own song on her husband's suspected affairs. Celebrities and influencers must have taken note here in Argentina: Sofía Aldrey, a makeup artist, posted screenshots of messages her former boyfriend had sent other women while they were a couple.

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch

The latest