Polyus

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-rise-fall-the-soviet-death-star-14854?platform=hootsuite
 
bobbymike said:
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-rise-fall-the-soviet-death-star-14854?platform=hootsuite
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The author essentially got 95% of his information from our earlier Air & Space magazine article (but at least he did not plagiarize us). There are some errors here too. I'd suggest going to our article instead, which was based upon a lot more primary research:

http://www.airspacemag.com/space/soviet-star-wars-8758185/?no-ist=&page=1
 
This probably best fits in this thread. Polyus rocket and Skif-DM, Skif and Kaskad payloads.

Polyus
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Skif-DM
space.skyrocket.de

Polyus (Skif-DM, 17F19DM)

Polyus, aka Skif-DM, was a test article to test several technologies for the Skif-D laser satellite, a soviet 'SDI' program. This vehicle was based...
space.skyrocket.de space.skyrocket.de

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Polyus Description

Detailled description of the Polyus vessel, its aim, the historical context in wich it wass made and its first flight with Energia.
www.buran-energia.com
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Polyus

Polyus
www.astronautix.com www.astronautix.com
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17F19 Skif

www.globalsecurity.org www.globalsecurity.org

Skif
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Kaskad

17F111 Cascade

www.globalsecurity.org www.globalsecurity.org
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The Baikal Amur Mainline and the Afghanistan war-not Energia-hurt the USSR the most I would think. In the West, the loss of Polyus, N-1 explosions and the Nedalin Disaster were lumped together by accident. I remember footage of the burning R-7 being called N-1 film by mistake. I didn't know UR-500 existed until the 1990's. I thought it was just R-7 and "G-1" and that was it...before seeing thinnish C.P. Vick drawings and Mark Wade's site. Energiya Buran I saw on Dan Rather's CBS news for all of two seconds-curse him.
 
publiusr said:
The Baikal Amur Mainline and the Afghanistan war-not Energia-hurt the USSR the most I would think. In the West, the loss of Polyus, N-1 explosions and the Nedalin Disaster were lumped together by accident. I remember footage of the burning R-7 being called N-1 film by mistake. I didn't know UR-500 existed until the 1990's. I thought it was just R-7 and "G-1" and that was it...before seeing thinnish C.P. Vick drawings and Mark Wade's site. Energiya Buran I saw on Dan Rather's CBS news for all of two seconds-curse him.
Click to expand...

BAM did minimal damage. It was the Cold War weapon race that did them in.
As far as TV coverage of Buran and Soviet space program, Rather had nothing to do with it. It was like that across all networks. It wasn't newsworthy to US viewers. You were just reading the wrong books. There was info on Proton and Zenit in the 80's.
 
Hi! New article about Skif/Polyus in the german spacemag Raumfahrt Concret (issue 2/2022). Interesting to me is for example the corrected direction of the target objects for the laser. (With kind permission by the author.)
 

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That had a Proton fairing and TKS/FGB tug as part of the package, right?
 
Barbarian in space: the secret space-laser battle station of the Cold War
by Dwayne A. Day and Robert Kennedy
Monday, June 5, 2023

The night skies over Kazakhstan lit up on May 15, 1987 as a powerful rocket roared off its pad at the Soviet launch complex at Baikonur. The Energia launch vehicle consisted of a core stage with four engines and four liquid-fueled strap-on booster rockets. A long cylinder mounted on the side of the rocket contained the payload, a massive spacecraft with “Polyus,” or “pole”—as in north or south pole—painted in Russian on its side, and “Mir-2” painted on its front. “Mir” means “peace” in Russian, a name that was possibly advertising, a cover story, or an ironic joke.

The spacecraft’s secret name was “Skif,” which referred to the Scythians, an ancient warrior tribe in central Asia—and the European equivalent of “barbarian.” It was the name the program had used for years.

Skif was certainly not peaceful. It contained prototype systems for a powerful orbiting laser intended to burn American satellites out of the sky.

 
Flyaway said:
Barbarian in space: the secret space-laser battle station of the Cold War
by Dwayne A. Day and Robert Kennedy
Monday, June 5, 2023

The night skies over Kazakhstan lit up on May 15, 1987 as a powerful rocket roared off its pad at the Soviet launch complex at Baikonur. The Energia launch vehicle consisted of a core stage with four engines and four liquid-fueled strap-on booster rockets. A long cylinder mounted on the side of the rocket contained the payload, a massive spacecraft with “Polyus,” or “pole”—as in north or south pole—painted in Russian on its side, and “Mir-2” painted on its front. “Mir” means “peace” in Russian, a name that was possibly advertising, a cover story, or an ironic joke.

The spacecraft’s secret name was “Skif,” which referred to the Scythians, an ancient warrior tribe in central Asia—and the European equivalent of “barbarian.” It was the name the program had used for years.

Skif was certainly not peaceful. It contained prototype systems for a powerful orbiting laser intended to burn American satellites out of the sky.

Click to expand...
Only 2.4MW of input power for 1MW laser?
 

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