Soviet Star Wars Revealed! Polyus

[mikejz]

Amazing Photos at: http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=30510<br /><br />Info: http://www.astronautix.com/craft/polyus.htm<br /><br /><img &%$#@!="http://www.army.lv/photos/3986.jpg" />

 

[yurkin]

thats so cool

 

[CalliArcale]

Energia was one heck of a booster. It performed flawlessly on both of its flights before the program was cancelled due to lack of funds. (A magnificent booster, but an expensive one too.) Energia was what put the Buran space shuttle into orbit for its single, unmanned, test flight.<br /><br />Polyus did not make it into orbit. Although the Energia performed correctly, but the Polyus itself, which had its own thruster package for orbit insertion, failed to fire properly due to a sensor malfunction. Polyus is at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean today, probably in quite a few pieces. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[najab]

><i>Energia was one heck of a booster. It performed flawlessly on both of its flights before the program was cancelled due to lack of funds.</i><p>It was more a lack of payloads than a lack of funds. Mir-2 kept getting pushed back and Buran was never finished - there were at least 2 complete Energia stacks on the ground up to the time that the N-1 building roof collapsed onto them. If the Cold War had ended 10 years sooner it is possible that some kind of ISS would have been launched using a combination of Energia and Shuttle.</p>

 

[Aetius]

I've always thought Polyus was a pretty cool spacecraft. I wasn't too happy about the prospect of those nukes deorbiting over my house, though, if Polyus had reached operational status.<br /><br />The funny thing is, when Polyus launched in 1987, the "Weekly World News" ran this headline:<br /><br />SOVIETS LAUNCH SPACE BATTLESHIP!<br /><br />I thought it was just another bogus story created by the tabloid's imaginative writers, even though the article had pictures of the Energia launch stack.<br /><br />But it was true! Maybe Bat Boy, the Lizard Man, and those space aliens who kept posing with President Clinton WERE for real, then! <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[spacester]

OMG that is effin cool. I've never seen those photos before.<br /><br />Did y'all notice the later post on that thread from that same poster, abbyy?<br /><br /><font color="yellow">One thing i can tell you - Energia Corp now workin on Mars mission.</font>/safety_wrapper> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[davf]

When we did our tour through there in '95, it looked as if the workers had simply packed up for the weekend and would be back to work in a few days. Seriously creepy feeling. Not only was one complete and another substantially complete, there were subassemblies for another 3 or 4 at least. Not to mention, the Energia-M standing around in the test building. What a waste... at least the Saturn V's left over from Apollo were turned into museum pieces. <br /><br />For the plastic modelling fans amongst us, START put out a kit of Energia and Polyus years ago.

 

[vogon13]

Soviets orbited 'space fighter' on test flight in early eighties. I have seen pix published and it looked like a little Buran or Space Shuttle. With collapse of Soviet Union it was revealed its' purpose was to destroy U.S. shuttle in orbit. After Challenger accident, Soviets canceled program. Sorry I don't have picture to post. <br /><br />Soviets also successfully tested hunter/killer satellite design in seventies. Made tremendous quantity of orbital debris. Seem to recall Soviets were concerned about U.S. shuttle simply retrieving Soviet orbital spy assets. Kind of a Glomar Explorer in space thing.<br /><br /><br /><br />Just give me the sign and I will be gone...<br />Ambrosia <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[Astrosag]

Haha..good deduction!