Yugoslavian Space Program – Houston We Have a Problem

Looking at the Yugoslavian Space Program – an upcoming Slovenian drama “Houston We Have a Problem” is slated to be released sometime in 2013. The documentary alleges a new twist in the Cold War due to American’s purchase of the secret Yugoslav space program – what would eventually put United States into space. According to the documentary, this was American’s effort to catch the USSR in the space race.

Post WWII Yugoslavian leadership made rapid development based on unknown diaries of Yugoslav and world space pioneer Herman Potocnik – Noordung. Technical solutions described in Potocnik’s unpublished papers were the basis for establishing secret Yugoslavian space program in 1948, after Josip Broz Tito’s conflict with Stalin.

Even though the full documentary is not out yet, but the posting of a documentary trailer by user on January 9, 2012 offers a rather unusual twist to the Cold War story, more than fifty years after America announced its intention to go to the Moon in May, 1961.

If you look closely the trailer claims that the full documentary will show that the CIA discovered a secret Yugoslav space program in 1960 and, behind in the space race with the Soviet Union, they bought the entire program from Yugoslav President Tito in March, 1961, just two months before President John F Kennedy announced America’s lunar ambitions.

According to the documentary, the origins of the Yugoslav space program lay in the writings and work of Herman Potocnik, whose 1929 book Problem Voznje po Vesolju (The Problem of Space Travel) inspired former Nazi and architect of the American space program Wernher von Braun. What America did not get their hands on were other writings and drawings by Potocnik, and these were found by Tito’s secret service in 1947 in which they played an important part in the Yugoslav space program which was started in 1948.

Needless to say, we’re pretty stoked about the release of this documentary. Not only does it have to do with ex-YU, but at the same time it could uncover a lot of history regarding the USA space program. More importantly the documentary will reveal the reasons Tito (then Yugoslav leader) started to build the biggest secret underground space program in the army base located in the city of Zeljeva, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

After Yugoslavia solid it’s space program for a record $2.5 billion dollars, the living standards in Yugoslavia improved considerably. The socialist country went to to experience rapid economic growth during the 60s, 70s, and 80s – where it was considered a European powerhouse in the 80s until the bloody war ruined it all during the early 1990s.

The authors of the documentary are Boštjan i Žiga Virc, and the full story will only be revealed with the full documentary, but the trailer is available below. Enjoy!!