netglow: "The Black Russians and the Black Horses": orbital bomber USSR

Key Points:1) The Polyus spacecraft, also known as Polus, Skif-DM, or 17F19DM, was a prototype orbital weapons platform designed to defend against anti-satellite weapons with recoilless cannon.

2) It was also equipped with a sensor blinding laser to confuse approaching weapons and could launch test targets to validate the fire control system.

3) It had the capability of deploying Nuclear mines through a special cannon.

4) Black matte painting for camouflage, probable stealth radar observing properties.

5) The laser device was not found on board, however. It had been replaced by a dummy of identical weight.

6) TASS originally reported that a 'mock-up' had been sent up by Energia (This would explain why the 60 ton Laser module was never recovered)

7) No member of the Reagan or Bush administrations ever admitted or revealed publicly any knowledge of Polyus.

8) The US Navy made no statements about any attempts to investigate the wreckage of Polyus, which lies on the floor of the South Pacific.

"The superheavy launcher Energia left the cosmodrome of Baikonur for the first time on May 15, 1987. This launch was an event for the cosmonautic world because the creation of such a launcher opened new ways for the USSR. For this first flight Energia carriage the experimental apparatus "Skif-DM" 17F19DM, disguised under the official name "Polyus" Russian (means "Pole").It would seem that Polyus is the Soviet response to the project "Star Wars" launched by the American president Reagan. It was to be in fact a laser space combat station. Finally, we know very few things about this apparatus and its real use.Officially it was intended to make scientific experiments in upper atmosphere."

- by Vassili Petrovitch

The Polyus spacecraft, also known as Polus, Skif-DM, or 17F19DM, was a prototype orbital weapons platform designed to defend against anti-satellite weapons with recoilless cannon. It had an FGB (the Russian acronym for Functional Cargo Block, similar to the Zarya FGB that was the first component of the International Space Station) space resupply tug, derived from a TKS spacecraft, attached to control its orbit. It was also equipped with a sensor blinding laser to confuse approaching weapons and could launch test targets to validate the fire control system.

Polyus was launched May 15, 1987, as part of the first flight of the Energia system.

According to Yuri Kornilov, Chief Designer of the Salyut Design Bureau, Mikhail Gorbachev shortly before Polyus' launch visited the Baikonur Cosmodrome and expressly forbid the on-orbit testing of its capabilities. Kornilov claims that Gorbachev was worried that it would be possible for the west to view this activity as an attempt to create a weapon in space and that such an attempt would compromise the country's leaderships' statements on the USSR’s peaceful intent. [1]

For technical reasons, the payload was launched upside down. It was designed to separate from the Energia, rotate 180 degrees, then complete its boost to orbit. The Energia functioned perfectly, but after disconnecting from Energia, the Polyus spun a full 360 degrees instead of the planned 180 degrees. When the rocket fired, it slowed and fell into the south Pacific ocean.

Parts of the Polyus project hardware were re-used in Kvant-2, Kristall, Spektr and Priroda Mir modules, as well as in ISS Zarya FGB.

Defensive weapons

    * Radar and optical sighting system guided ASAT defensive canon.
    * Barium cloud generation system, to confuse enemy ASAT satellites.
    * Black matte painting for camouflage, probable stealth radar observing properties.
    * Communications possible through usage of laser communication link, allowing operation in radio silence.

Offensive weapons

* Nuclear mines deployed through a special cannon.

- SOURCE - Wikipedia

"Soviet research into ground and space based laser weapons systems began in the 1960s. The Soviets actually built several ground based lasers in the 1980s which reportedly could destroy or interfere with satellites and aircraft. The space based laser system envisioned in this 1987 work was designed to destroy or incapacitate satellites and intercontinental ballistic missiles, but was never built."
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)

" . . . He who Controls Space may well control the future of Mankind. We have a chance, through High Frontier, using existing technology to develop a space program that is absolutely necessary to our survival and that will give us a chance to move past the Russians to assure our own nation and freedom a future on this planet" - Newt Gingrich
"High Frontier" by General Daniel O.Graham (1983)
So according to Newt Gingrich... in 1983 the Russians were ahead of us in the High Frontier (Space)

An article entitled "Unknown Polyus" by Yuri Kornilov, Chief Designer of the Salyut Design Bureau, had appeared in the journal "Earth and the Universe", and it provided details about the construction and testing of the first payload for the Energia rocket, the "Polyus" spacecraft. While Kornilov invites the reader to "read between the lines" and points out previous Soviet mis-statements about the Polyus, he was under a security ban which would lead to a 10 years in prison if he reveals (Soviet) "state" secrets. His article continues to claim that weapons systems tests were peaceful experiments.
http://k26.com/buran/Info/Polyus/polyus-energia.html

On March 23, 1983, United States President Ronald Reagan set forth his vision of "Star Wars", a shield intended to defend the United States against nuclear attack from any place on Earth. The leader of the Soviet Union, Yuri Andropov, immediately accused the United States of seeking to militarily dominate the Soviet Union, and it kept he also authorized the design of counter-measures, including Polyus. Andropov sought to bring about a treaty banning military weapons from space until he fell ill in June, 1983.No member of the Reagan or Bush administrations ever admitted or revealed publicly any knowledge of Polyus. The US Navy made no statements about any attempts to investigate the wreckage of Polyus, which lies on the floor of the South Pacific.
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/polyus.htm

Preventing the Weaponization of Space"Preventing the Weaponization of Space" that was printed in Nexus magazine in November, 2004. In it we find an "Enemies List" that the U.S. government uses to keep the media and public in support of the Pentagon Budget. The list, given to Carol Rosin by her colleague the famous German rocket scientist Dr Wernher von Braun, has the following sequenced manufactured threats. Here we see:
America's 'Enemies List' to Sustain War Mode and Pentagon Budgets
1 - Soviet Union
2 - Terrorists
3 - Asteroids
4 - Extraterrestrials

Dr von Braun said none of these threats are hostile and all a lie. He said all of this must be stopped and worked with Carol Rosin up until the time of his death by cancer in Alexandria, Virginia in 1977 to prevent the weaponization of space, just as President Eisenhower had warned about the threat of the military-industrial-corporate-academic complex to America's future in the early 50s.
On June 16, 1977, Wernher von Braun died in Alexandria, Virginia at the age of 65. He was buried at the Ivy Hill Cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia

"In 1987, the Energia rocket would do its first flight, taking to the space the heaviest satellite already sent, the Polyus. The Polyus was an enormous military satellite of 80 ton of weight. Photos of their interior or an official description of their systems were never disclosed. Polyus was finished in three years, hardly much more fast that any other Soviet project of so large resemblance. The launching was successful, but a problem in the system of guidance of the Polyus made it fall in the Earth before completing his first orbit. This failure would not have any interference in the continuity of the Energia/Buran program."- by Vassili Petrovitch

Russian Battle Station Polyus
Battle Station Polyus.

DefenseTech reported, some time ago, on the old USSR’s Space Battle Station (or, communist Russia’s answer to Reagan’s star wars program). More pictures are in a forum at Militaryphotos.net.

Called Polyus, it was ridiculously huge — as with all things Russian. Sadly, (from a purely scientific perspective) DefenseTech reports “it couldn’t get itself into a working orbit, probably because of ‘a faulty inertial guidance sensor,’ according to the Encyclopedia Astronautica.”

Who can tell what its capabilities were, but it’s interesting that the Soviet space weapons system appeared closer to completion than the US’s system. Of course, the fact that the Soviets were not able to build a new one and complete the program after the loss of the first one sort of confirms what everybody was saying about the communist economy all along (well, through the 1990s, after it had already become abundantly clear). Of course, it’s possible that there are active Russian weapons in space now that we don’t know about, but that’s what movies are for.

SOURCE: by Vassili Petrovitch

Russian Battle Station Polyus Moves to Launch pad

Polyus on Pad
Note 'Mir-2' written on side of Polyus - a clear indication that this was intended as the core of the Mir-2 station

Polyus Combat Satellite