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Soviet Space Battle Station Skif and Its Prototype Polus
militaryphotos.net ^ | Thu Nov 18, 2004 | Abbyy

Posted on 11/22/2004 7:04:09 PM PST by anymouse

Soviet Union was developing laser space battle station Skif from beginning of 80's.

Length: 37 meters

Diameter: 4.1 meter

Weight: around 80 tons

It was supposed to be launched by Energia booster (same as for Buran shuttle)

Unarmed prototype filled with scientific equipment was created around 1985 and launched 15 May 1987. It was failed to start operations and with the fall of Soviet Union project was scrapped.

My father personally participated in this project (he also worked on Mir and International Space Station projects) and he was very dissapointed with this failure as i remember. It was big blow for Energia Corp engineers.



TOPICS: Editorial; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Russia; Technical
KEYWORDS: coldwar; energia; laser; military; militaryspace; rocket; russia; sovietunion; space; starwars
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To: GeronL

yeah if you think about the fact that the hubble will one day burn up in the atmosephere. Makes you wonder if our great great grand children will be dismayed at our lack of foresight.


21 posted on 11/22/2004 8:18:43 PM PST by Walkingfeather (q)
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To: Cold Heat
mussel!!!!!= missile

This dang spell checker is giving me fits on this laptop.

22 posted on 11/22/2004 8:19:25 PM PST by Cold Heat (There is more to do! "Mr. Kerry, about that Navy discharge?")
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To: Army Air Corps

no, why?


23 posted on 11/22/2004 8:24:51 PM PST by GeronL ([[[[[[[[[[[This tagline closed until further notice- Homeland Security Dept-]]]]]]]]]]]]]])
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To: erizo

Not for this specific item maybe =o)


24 posted on 11/22/2004 8:25:37 PM PST by GeronL ([[[[[[[[[[[This tagline closed until further notice- Homeland Security Dept-]]]]]]]]]]]]]])
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To: Thud

Check out these pictures!


25 posted on 11/22/2004 8:50:14 PM PST by Dark Wing
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To: GeronL

The hollow, recoverable rocket was Blofeld's means of snagging US and Soviet spacecraft in orbit and returning said spacecraft to his secret lair.


26 posted on 11/22/2004 8:55:08 PM PST by Army Air Corps (Half a league, half a league rode the MSM into the valley of obscurity)
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To: Cold Heat

According to Encyclopedia Astronautica, this thing was designed to carry nuclear mines among other toys.


27 posted on 11/22/2004 8:58:56 PM PST by Army Air Corps (Half a league, half a league rode the MSM into the valley of obscurity)
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To: Army Air Corps

I can only imagine what they had planned.


28 posted on 11/22/2004 9:04:30 PM PST by Cold Heat (There is more to do! "Mr. Kerry, about that Navy discharge?")
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To: Army Air Corps

cool. I think in the future something similar could be used to snatch satellites and bring them back to Earth


29 posted on 11/22/2004 9:06:15 PM PST by GeronL ([[[[[[[[[[[This tagline closed until further notice- Homeland Security Dept-]]]]]]]]]]]]]])
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To: FrankRepublican

It's a "Lah-zer." Oh ha ha ha, ha ha, cough, cough.

30 posted on 11/22/2004 9:06:20 PM PST by anymouse
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To: anymouse; atomicpossum; corkoman; Walkingfeather; Shortwave; Army Air Corps; Moonman62; killjoy; ...

Statements made at that time by Gorbachev confirm the impression left by this article and another by General Designer V.V. Pallo of Design Bureau Salyut that the Polyus was indeed a test bed for the Soviet counter measure to the United States "Stars Wars" program, an Orbital Weapons Platform. Platforms of this type would have been capable of delivering nuclear warheads from orbit to any point in the US in six minutes. Gorbachev pointedly called all US SDI technology "space strike" weapons and repeatedly warned that the Soviet response to Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) would be "asymmetrical" and that SDI was "destabilising". It appears that the nuclear warhead launch control system for the Orbital Weapons Platforms was being developed in a very rushed manner and the instability of the Orbital Weapons Platforms scared the Soviet leadership.

That passage plus the illustration in the link make it plain that this monstrosity also carried a load of nuke warheads, in absolute, total violation of the 1967 treaty. In addition to the laser, cannon and particle beam countermeasures. I have my doubts as to how capable the laser could have been with early eighties' stolen technology. If the story is really true then I gather it was sheer dumb luck that this unclean thing splashed in the remote south pacific without raising any eyebrows. Am I correct in assuming it's load of warheads lie undisturbed on the abyssal plain?

If anything, it's like the weapon in Space Cowboys. I knew the Energia was launched one time before the one-and-only unmanned Buran flight but no mention was ever made of the payload carried. It does seem a tragedy that Energia is now on the junk heap of history. Here we have a heavy lift Saturn V category booster without having to bother with the damn shuttle. You could put a respectable sized space station up in a single trip (a la Skylab).

31 posted on 11/22/2004 9:10:55 PM PST by sinanju
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To: GeronL

That was one of the proposed tasks for the Shuttle; it has performed this mission a few times. I see SSTO rockets doing the same at less cost.


32 posted on 11/22/2004 9:31:49 PM PST by Army Air Corps (Half a league, half a league rode the MSM into the valley of obscurity)
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To: sinanju

Apparently, no nikes were loded onto the unit. The Soviets were not the type to risk nuke warheads on a test station. I am not saying that such a scenario is impossible, just unlikely.

This thing was so damned big that using F-15 launched ASAT weapons in salvo could have brought the behemoth to an early demise in the event of hostilities.


33 posted on 11/22/2004 9:36:43 PM PST by Army Air Corps (Half a league, half a league rode the MSM into the valley of obscurity)
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To: Army Air Corps

nikes = nukes

loded = loaded

Sorry for the spelling mishap.


34 posted on 11/22/2004 9:37:47 PM PST by Army Air Corps (Half a league, half a league rode the MSM into the valley of obscurity)
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To: Cold Heat

This was fairly typical of many soviet weapons systems. They aimed to counter SDI (many specialised orbital weapons platforms) with one massive target, er, platform. Overbuilt overkill with limited survivability.


35 posted on 11/22/2004 9:40:46 PM PST by Army Air Corps (Half a league, half a league rode the MSM into the valley of obscurity)
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To: sinanju
They claim it went up unarmed as a prototype. Probably to test targeting controllers and the like, but knowing Russian history, it may well have been the entire enchilada, as they say.

During this time, we were busy, busy building and testing new MFG processes and tolerance improvements.

But I really don't know to this day if we actually had anything that worked. The plant I worked at built a modular section of something, but I never saw what was fitted into it. I don't even know if we put something up.

What a game that was.

36 posted on 11/22/2004 9:41:39 PM PST by Cold Heat (There is more to do! "Mr. Kerry, about that Navy discharge?")
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To: anymouse

Dude, this is the coolest thing I have seen in a long, long time. That thing is BADASS!!!. I'm glad it didn't work though....or did it?


37 posted on 11/22/2004 9:46:40 PM PST by starvingstudent (ask your favorite leftist: "If there is another civil war, who do you think will win?")
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To: Army Air Corps
Ha! Did you see my "mussels"!

On a laptop, you tend to use the arrow keys to scroll, rather than the mouse. The scroll function aggravates me so I turn it off.

unfortunately the spell checker scrolls and I don't catch it sometimes.

38 posted on 11/22/2004 9:47:13 PM PST by Cold Heat (There is more to do! "Mr. Kerry, about that Navy discharge?")
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To: Cold Heat

My excuse is that I am typing in low light and my fingers strike the wrong d*mned keys. It is interesting to hear that you were in the trenches during the Cold War. It would be interesting to show this piece of hardware (the Soviet military space platform) to some of my lefty colleagues and hear their responses. I am sure that they would say that, somehow, it was our fault.


39 posted on 11/22/2004 9:54:30 PM PST by Army Air Corps (Half a league, half a league rode the MSM into the valley of obscurity)
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To: Shortwave
  A11 y0ur weap0nz bel0ng t0 us

I really, really hate to be a catchphrase nazi, but I think you meant to say:

  "A11 y0ur weap0nz Ar3 bel0ng t0 us."

Er, or something like that. ;-)

P.S. Love the pic... nice job!

40 posted on 11/22/2004 9:57:58 PM PST by Mike-o-Matic
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