One of the treble hooks which the AF used to snag the parachute is on display in the lobby of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Using the parachute worked until the Navy found a Soviet sub waiting under the planned drop zone, in case the C-124 missed the snag. That’s when they realized the need to figure a way to download the images by encrypted communications.
Now how did the Soviets know where it was going to land?
So I wonder how they knew where to be..?