Azorian: The Raising of the K-129

I suppose this documentary aired on PBS in the last year but apparently it is not well known as this is the first review here on IMDb. I thought it was outstanding and should be of interest to any cold war history fan, submarine fans and especially to any engineering project geeks. It reminds me most of films about the building of things like the Hoover Dam or the Brooklyn Bridge. The story is about the attempted recovery of a Russian submarine that went down in 1969 in the center of the Pacific by the Americans. The Americans knew the location but the Russians didn't so there was the secrecy issue but mostly the incredible engineering involved makes for a very compelling story.

With all the things one can watch now, it is no wonder that this documentary slipped under the radar. You are lucky that you found it. This documentary has been over a decade now and it is now time for a follow-up documentary.

This is the story of How the U. S "secretly" recovered the Soviet ballistic missile submarine K-129 that sank in the Pacific Ocean in 1969. We get the ins and outs of how it was done such as hearing the explosion through a series of sea-floor listening devices that were designed to hear underwater nuclear tests. We also get an overall of what was happening in the world at that time.

Great documentary, especially for anyone with any Engineering interest! Deep dives into a lot of details around the custom built ship, components, and effort over 6 years that it took to secretly attempt to recover the sunken K-129 Russian submarine from 3 miles down in the Pacific Ocean.

I cannot fathom why this narrator delivers this information so quickly. It is so distracting. This documentary needs to be watched at .75 speed in order to be processed. Really really distracting, and quite stressful to watch.

Very interesting piece of history but good lord I hate how this guy blasts through his narration.

The information relating to the operation is interesting though. It would be difficult to make this subject matter boring.

The best part was the talking heads, as it slowed down the pace a bit. I guess this is a holdover from the old PBS TV documentary days.

Either way. Worth a watch at .75 speed if you can figure that out.

In 1968, Soviet submarine K-129 sank in the middle of the Pacific with three advanced nuclear missiles. The Americans hear the explosion through a series of sea-floor listening devices that are designed to hear underwater nuclear tests. The Soviets have none of that advantage and hopeless to locate the wreck. By 1974, the CIA has located and photographed the wreck. The President approves a daring secret CIA operation called Project Azorian. That's when the secretive Howard Hughes' role become invaluable.

I write this review because I remember a documentary about Hughes' Glomar Explorer doing underwater mining. It is one of those incidences that proves that conspiracy theorist aren't alway wrong or crazy. As a kid, I bought it hook, line, and sinker. This documentary itself is rather dry but informative. It covers all the technical aspects.