Soviet Space Battle Station Images Published 350
An anonymous reader writes "Images of the Soviet Union's laser space battle station Skif and its prototype Polyus have been published on the web. Polyus-Skif was the Soviet response to the American 'Star Wars' program of the 1980s. The Polyus was launched in May 1987 but a faulty sensor caused it to de-orbit into the South Pacific. More information can be found at Encyclopedia Astronautica."
Wow (Score:5, Interesting)
any ideas why this on the Latvian army site? (Score:3, Interesting)
Software error (Score:5, Interesting)
Leads one to ponder the relative computing powess (Score:2, Interesting)
Leads one to ponder about the relative computing powess against the counterpart in those times.
Just how far the computing differences were, considering that a probable computation error caused the machine to orbit incorrectly.
Re:Software error (Score:5, Interesting)
"One thing i can tell you - Energia Corp now (Score:5, Interesting)
A most interesting comment from the guy who provided the photos.
Perhaps he woudl be willing submit to a
If the USSR had that back then.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Launch Failure Conspiracy Theory (Score:5, Interesting)
Gorbachev had just come to power and wanted to make peace overtures to the West. A giant space battle station was not going to help this endeavour so a deliberate "launch failure" would be the simplest and easiest way of getting rid of the darn thing and shutting down the program.
As I said, it's nothing more than a theory I've heard articulated. I've no idea how much credability or plausibility it has.
Re:History Channel Last Night (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Man, I am glad it "de-orbited." (Score:2, Interesting)
300 million wouldn't even cover the costs
for the symposium to kick off the feasability
study.
bush & co (warsRus) has already kicked in over
6 billion dollars for new (non-Reagan) work on
a (theatre) missile defense system. so far,
the only tests that have worked have been the
ones that have been "billed" as "demonstrations".
"leaked" reagan-era intel touted soviet land-
based laser cannon capable of destroying USA
satellites in HEO. $6B for a non-functional
missile defense system, but not a red cent more
for seaport & container cargo security.
sounds to me more like the justification for yet
another bush initiative, the militarization of
earth orbit. it's the usual thing -- beat the
american people over the head with exaggerated
or fake threats in order to pry more money out
of the taxpayers for the military-industrial
complex.
Re:Software error (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Stratoshperic Archeology (Score:3, Interesting)
anyway, funky shots of a funky vehicle from a funky time... glad those days are over. I like Russians and I am happy to be their friend. For the others? Yab t'vayuh Maht!
Re:If the USSR had that back then.... (Score:5, Interesting)
You can't hit what you can't see. Sounds obvious but in warfare it can be the only difference between winning and getting spanked.
Re:Launch Failure Conspiracy Theory (Score:3, Interesting)
Newsflash for you: there are more ways of bringing something down then just shooting it out of the sky.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Interesting)
The picture of the launch vehicle being erected is classic. Looks like either the world's largest surface-to-air missile or a 1950's idea of a rocket ship.
Why would MIR be on the side of a combat vehicle? (Score:2, Interesting)
Rabid Ronnie (Score:3, Interesting)
Mainly though, this Polyus battle station shows what a waste the SDI initiative was in the first place, and more importantly, for today's world of Texas cowboys, what a waste the missile defense shield is. The huge amount of money wasted on lunatic plans to conquer space is easily countered with comparitively cheap countermeasure, be they a space based laser battlestation (why does the US think that China could not build one itself, with the same lack of hoo haa that the Russians had?) or a manouvering warhead.
But those big defense companies need to justify their existences, employees salaries, and profits, don't they?
Soviet Russia is GO! (Score:3, Interesting)
And yeah, it does look like the Thunderbirds. If I stare long enough, I could swear I see the strings.
I'm calling BS Flag, 30 yard line. It may be legit, but somebody is gonna have to do better than those photographs.