U-2 incident

[Jim Eshelman]

May 1, 1960, hour unknown, near Aramil, USSR: 56N43'36", 60E59'10"

58 years ago today, one of the key events of the Cold War occurred. U.S. pilot Gary Powers, flying a U-2 spy plane, was shot down over Sverdlovsk Oblast in the Soviet Union. After initially denying the plane's existence, the U.S. admitted the mission and its failure when the USSR produced the plane scraps and the live pilot. (Powers was tried and convicted of espionage. It took almost two years for the U.S. to free him.)

For some reason I can't find a time for this incident.

First, a brief examination for THE SITE OF THE INCIDENT.


CAPSOLAR. Dormant but with a 0°15' Moon-Neptune square. (Cansolar is also dormant.)

ARISOLAR. Neptune 1°03' from Ascendant + a little Uranus.

CAPLUNAR. Dormant, but a mundane (locale-specific) Moon-Saturn conjunction, 2°08'

ARILUNAR. Fascinating: Jupiter < 3° from IC. I can think of several things this might represent, no need to pin them down necessarily.

DAY. Poor overall, not worth detailing. The most interesting thing is probably transiting Mercury on CanQ Asc.


I'm more interested in how this looked for the respective capitals.

[Jim Eshelman]

Redoing it for Moscow...

CAPSOLAR: in addition to Moon-Neptune square 0°16', Mars is 3°11' from MC. This still leaves the chart technically dormant, but that Mars on MC in Sagittarius is quite compelling. (It's partile ecliptically, which probably doesn't mean anything.)

CANSOLAR. Uranus sq. Asc 1°36' breaks dormancy. We then get a 20' Venus-Pluto mundane conjunction, 3+° from MC, square widely rising Jupiter, and Mars 7° from MC mundane square a stationary, barely foreground Neptune. Yup, spy drama and international relations confrontation are written all over this!

ARISOLAR. Saturn (in Sagittarius) 0°28' from MC square a 27' mundane conjunction of Neptune and Pluto, 1-2° from Descendant. Saturn-Neptune and Saturn-Pluto in mundane square. A few other details, but these are the big ones. - Wow, not what I expected: It shows the USSR being badly hit by this (whereas I'm sure they knew there was spying, and this was likely a gleeful chance to embarass the USA).

CAPLUNAR. Ah, here's the glee. Jupiter 1°27' from Dsc.

CAPQ MC exactly square Saturn, Asc picks up transiting Sun and progressed Moon. Meanwhile, Jupiter exactly transits square Capsolar MC.

CANQ MC squares transiting Mars exactly. Meanwhile, transiting Pluto is 29' from Cansolar MC.

[Jim Eshelman]

And for Washington...

CANSOLAR. The chart is mostly, "It's all about the plane, and getting revealed." Mercury conjoins Asc (1°53'), Uranus squares MC (1°24'), Jupiter sq. Asc (1°07''), and there's a partile foreground Mars-Pluto mundane conjunction. Mundanely, Mercury and Uranus are even in orb of foreground conjunction (routine for "plane crash"). I'd like less Jupiter, but it's what we've got.

CAPLUNAR. Venus sq. Asc 1°36' breaks dormancy. The rest of the chart is ugly and embarrassing - see the mundoscope - partile Moon-Saturn conjunction square Neptune, all about 4° from Asc-MC.

ARILUNAR. More embarrassment: Sun-Neptune opposition across horizon and a little Uranus.

CAPQ. Transiting partile square MC. (Perfect.) This also turns ingress Jupiter on MC into the same Jupiter squared by Mars. Meanwhile, transiting Pluto conjoins Capsolar MC. (Bam.)

Overall, this is pretty good! The capitals definitely told the story better than the crash site. They're where the actions really took place.

[Jim Eshelman]

May 1, 1960, hour unknown, near Aramil, USSR: 56N43'36", 60E59'10"

I made some inquiries today in the mundane astrology community as to whether anyone had a time for this incident. Astrologer Anna-Cristal de Lyon had Google translate the following from a Russian-language publication (https://vpk-news.ru/news/50001) :

Memorable date - May 1 in the USSR shot down an American high-altitude spy plane

On May 1, 1960, an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft piloted by US Air Force pilot Francis Powers was shot down in the USSR airspace in the Sverdlovsk region (Yekaterinburg). The pilot managed to eject.

On this day, the U-2 piloted by Powers took off from an air base in Peshawar (Pakistan) and at 5.36 Moscow time crossed the USSR state border twenty kilometers southeast of Kirovabad (Pyanj) of the Tajik SSR at an altitude of 20 km.

The purpose of the flight was to photograph military and industrial facilities of the Soviet Union, including the Baikonur test site and the Arzamas-16 nuclear weapons development center, as well as the recording of signals from Soviet radar stations.

However, the mission could not be completed.At 8.53, near Sverdlovsk, the plane was fired at ground-to-air missiles of the S-75 air defense missile system. The first rocket fired hit the U-2, damaged the engine and tail section.

The rocket defeat occurred at the extreme range when firing at the plane at an altitude of 21,740 meters. Non-contact undermining of the warhead occurred from the rear hemisphere. As a result, the tail of the aircraft was destroyed, but the cockpit with the pilot remained intact, which saved his life.

The Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court convicted him of espionage and sentenced him to a long prison term. The American administration had to admit that its reconnaissance aircraft continued to fly around Soviet territory at high altitude to monitor military preparations — earlier Washington denied this.

Powers served 21 months in Soviet prison, after which he was exchanged for Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel, who was arrested in America in September 1957

So we take the time to be 8:53 AM Moscow time. The location of "in the Sverdlovsk region (Yekaterinburg)" seems to match the English Wikipedia page statement, "near Aramil, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Soviet Union." The coordinates given match to the minute of arc, but differ by seconds. The English Wikipedia page gives 56N43'35.73", 60E59'09.61. (I'm not clear whether this is the location of the hit (in the air) or the location of the final crash, but I'm comfortable with either. The Russian site gave 56N42′38″, 60E58′39″, essentially the same, but, from how it is worded, I trust the one from the English site more.

Anna-Cristal de Lyon clarified that 8:53 AM is the time the first missile was fired, which did hit the plane; but other missiles were required and it was 9:00 AM before the last of these destroyed the plane's tail and brought it down.

A chart for 8:53 had:
Neptune sq. Asc 0°53'
Moon sq. MC 0°59'
Uranus on Asc 8°41'
Sun-Neptune op. 0°56' in mundo
Moon-Saturn op. 1°20' in mundo

A chart for 9:00 had:
Neptune sq. Asc 0°17'
Moon on EP 0°33'
Sun sq. Asc 2°54'
Uranus rising 7°32'
Sun-Neptune op. 1°03' in mundo
Moon-Saturn op. 1°21' in mundo

In general, the timing is slightly sharper for the time of the final downing of the plane at 9:00 AM, but they are about the same.

One curio, from a house perspective, something happened in that seven minutes that was a very exacting meaning, both in the sense of a missile striking a long-range aircraft and volatility added to diplomatic matters: Using the mundoscope position (prime vertical longitude = Campanus mundane cuspal crossings), Mars was 1°08' before (above) the 9th cusp at 8:53 and 1°49' after (below) the 9th cusp at 9:00 AM. It crossed exactly not quite halfway through, around 8:56.

I will use 8:53 AM for the first missile striking the plane.

[Jim Eshelman]

May 1, 1960, 8:53 AM BAT, 56N43'36", 60E59'10"

It starts quite well and finishes quite weakly. The real activity was in Washington and Moscow.

Year: Capsolar (Dormant.) Moon-Saturn sq. 0°24' in mundo, Moon-Neptune sq. 0°16'.
Year: Cansolar (Dormant.)

Bridge
t Pluto sq. s Asc 1°47'

Quarter: Arisolar (Dormant.)

Quarter: Libsolar {+2}
Sun on MC 0°31'
Mars & Saturn widely foreground
-- Mars-Saturn sq. 0°03' in mundo
-- Sun-Mars conj. 3°44'
Moon-Mercury op. 0°53'

Month: Caplunar (Dormant.)

Week: Arilunar {+2}
Mars on Asc 0°50'
Moon, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto more widely angular
-- Mercury-Venus conj. 0°02' in mundo
-- Moon-Sun conj. 0°24' in mundo
-- -- Ur/Pl on Dsc 0°25'
-- -- Mo-Ur on horizon 0°34'
-- Neptune-Pluto conj. 0°38' in mundo
-- -- Ur/Ne on Dsc 0°45'
-- -- Su/Ur on horizon 0°45'
-- Sun-Venus 1°50' conj. in mundo
-- Sun-Mercury conj. 1°52' in mundo
-- Moon-Pluto op. 2°00' in mundo
-- Moon-Venus conj. 2°14' in mundo
-- Moon-Mercury conj. 2°16' in mundo
-- Sun-Pluto op. 2°24' in mundo
-- Moon-Neptune op. 2°38' in mundo
-- Sun-Neptune op. 3°02' in mundo

Day: Capsolar Quotidian & Transits {+1}
p MC sq. p Moon 0°13'
----------------------------
t Pluto sq. s Asc 1°47'
t Venus conj. s EP 0°28'
t Mercury sq. s MC 0°33'

Day: Cansolar Quotidian {0}
p Asc sq. t Moon 0°26'