Polyus

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.
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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.

https://thespacereview.com/article/4598/1
 
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.

https://thespacereview.com/article/4598/1
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Only 2.4MW of input power for 1MW laser?
 
avatar said:
From nuclear mines to orbital cannon
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Not really, it was a laser cannon. And if you were in space close to the Skif (If the polyus actually orbits), you would see a 30-meter-long heated red beam shooting out from the weapon. This was an exotic and near-success of making a laser orbital weapon. The targets were mostly US SDIs.
 
sidle said:
Not really, it was a laser cannon. And if you were in space close to the Skif (If the polyus actually orbits), you would see a 30-meter-long heated red beam shooting out from the weapon. This was an exotic and near-success of making a laser orbital weapon. The targets were mostly US SDIs.
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You are replying to a comment made 17 years ago.
 
wpacexxx said:
Not really, it was a laser cannon. And if you were in space close to the Skif (If the polyus actually orbits), you would see a 30-meter-long heated red beam shooting out from the weapon. This was an exotic and near-success of making a laser orbital weapon. The targets were mostly US SDIs.
Click to expand...
Why 30 meters? The range of the laser on the “Skif” was hundreds of kilometers, depending on the nature of the target and the desired degree of damage.
I also have serious doubts about the visibility of the laser beam: during tests of this laser on the A-60 laboratory aircraft, while firing at high-altitude balloons at night from a distance of 30 km, the laser beam was invisible
 
wpacexxx said:
you would see a 30-meter-long heated red beam shooting out from the weapon.
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it would have 1-megawatt gas dynamic carbon dioxide (CO2) laser, Named Dreif.
That would emit infrared Laser light that is Invisible, but should damage optical sensor and guidance system of US satellites.
to power Dreif, it would mix chemicals (CO2, nitrogen and helium) to provide either Power or Light to pump the CO2 Laser.
Skif was design to vent the used chemical, without recoil during fire the Laser.
 
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wpacexxx said:
Not really, it was a laser cannon. And if you were in space close to the Skif (If the polyus actually orbits), you would see a 30-meter-long heated red beam shooting out from the weapon
Click to expand...
This comment isn't accurate either
 
Michel Van said:
it would have 1-megawatt gas dynamic carbon dioxide (CO2) laser, Named Dreif.
That would emit infrared Laser light that is Invisible, but should damage optical sensor and guidance system of US satellites.
to power Dreif, it would mix chemicals (CO2, nitrogen and helium) to provide either Power or Light to pump the CO2 Laser.
Skif was design to vent the used chemical, without recoil during fire the Laser.
Click to expand...
You're right.
Before the first tests of the megawatt laser from the A-60 flying laboratory against high-altitude (approximately 28–30 km) balloons, a low-power targeting IR laser was first tested on a helicopter flying at a range of about 15 km. The helicopter crew, despite wearing protective gear, suffered skin burns
 

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