“Close Up” is episode eleven of season one of UFO.
Skydiver 1 surfaces to check on a satellite. They get its broadcast, then have to crash dive when a freighter is detected. The captain informs SHADO Control, who will pass it on to Straker.
Straker and Freeman are heading to a facility, which communicates with the same satellite, apparently getting it to activate a camera. Once done, they return with the tape to SHADO Control, where photos of Earth are printed out. They’re impressed and Straker says he will get the project approved.
Straker speaks to Masters and Kelly about the project, which will be ready in three weeks. Kelly wants a private word about getting his own, $50K, project approved. Straker tells him he needs to concentrate on space.
Straker heads to a meeting of the financial committee of the International Astrophysical Commission. General Henderson tells the committee that they will realise that the first item, with its billion-dollar price tag, is Straker’s. Straker explains how they’re going to fit a probe with a new electron telescope that gives images of great quality. And they don’t want to take photos of the Earth; they want to follow a UFO to its origin and get high-definition close ups of the alien planet. The probe will be launched in a parking orbit around the Moon, by NASA as SHADO lacks the facilities, then the electron telescope added by astronauts from MoonBase.
Straker returns and meets with Foster and Freeman in his office. They have a go in four weeks.
Several weeks later, the electron telescope is ready and the probe successfully launched. Straker heads to MoonBase with Ford, Foster and Matthews. The telescope is fitted; they just then need a UFO to come in on the right angle.
So, they need a UFO to come in on the right path, then successfully follow it back, then successfully take photos. A lot of things to go wrong. And, of course, Kelly proves to have a point.