Vorona-1

The Vorona-1 was a satellite built by the Soviet Union, and launched in 1958 to Earth-Moon Lagrange Point-2, in an effort to secure their lead in the Space Race with the United States.

Overview
A communications failure, however, would result in an investigation by the Soviet space program, with several cosmonauts sent to investigate the disturbance. However, they were not prepared for the apparent cause of the communications failure – hostile alien life forms that would be referred to in later years as "Typhon". All members of the mission were lost, and footage of the incident was classified as a state secret by the Soviet leadership.

The Vorona-1 remained at that point, still infested with Typhon organisms, as a point of research for the joint American-Soviet Kletka Program, which was created by American President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Khrushchev to research Typhon by building a space station around the infestation point. The satellite was contained in a laboratory onboard the space station meant to contain the aliens, even after the termination of cooperation with the Soviet Union in 1963, where American scientists would continue to research the Vorona and its "residents" until a fatal accident in 1998.

Trivia

 * The Russian word "vorona" (ворона) translates to "crow" in English.
 * The Russian word 'Kletka' (клетка) is translated as "cage" in the game, but is more correctly translated as "cell." As in English, it can mean either a prison cell, or a biological cell.