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Author
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Topic: today in space HISTORY 10/10
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Rizz
Member Posts: 1208
From: Upcountry, Maui, Hawaii
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 10-10-2002 03:12 PM
  
Is there any more information available regarding the Shuttle and soviet laser?Thanks, Frank |
Aztecdoug
Member Posts: 1405
From: Huntington Beach
Registered: Feb 2000
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posted 10-10-2002 04:15 PM
Very interesting item. I had never heard of this until the blurb here today. I found this...
http://www.astronautix.com/details/stsg3087.htm
"In response to the American Strategic Defence Initiative and continued military use of the shuttle, the Soviet Union fired a 'warning shot' from the Terra-3 laser complex at Sary Shagan. The facility tracked Challenger with a low power laser on 10 October 1984. This caused malfunctions to on-board equipment and discomfort / temporary blinding of the crew, leading to a US diplomatic protest."
Google brought up more references, but this is the first one I read! Shocking! ------------------
Warm Regards Douglas Henry Enjoy yourself and have fun.... it is only a hobby! |
Rizz
Member Posts: 1208
From: Upcountry, Maui, Hawaii
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 10-10-2002 04:57 PM
Thanx for the link Douglas.Frank |
AeroSpace Hound
Member Posts: 34
From: Chicago, IL
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 10-11-2002 09:43 AM
I guess this is another Cold War secret?They fired a warning off shot off our bow, and all we did is send a letter? I hope that at least in secret we did more in a response than say "Hey...guys..stop it". |
ALAIN
Member Posts: 355
From: GENT, Belgium
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 10-11-2002 11:27 AM
Guys, let us NOT forget that the Space Shuttle is designed as a MILITARY vehicle !!! |
AeroSpace Hound
Member Posts: 34
From: Chicago, IL
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 10-11-2002 12:18 PM
I believe that it was designed with applications for both civil and military.Maybe, we should have treated that Soviet laser site like we do the Iraqi SAM sites that fire at the American fighters that are on patrol currently over northern Iraq. The sites are destroyed. That was then, this is now.
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Cliff Lentz
Member Posts: 655
From: Philadelphia, PA USA
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 10-11-2002 04:28 PM
...And now they are our partners in the International Space Station. |
Cliff Lentz
Member Posts: 655
From: Philadelphia, PA USA
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 10-11-2002 04:47 PM
One more thing! If the shuttle was designed as a military vehicle, where are the guns. I mean, come on! Let's go all the way and make a military vehicle. Lasers, missiles, the works!! We may not all be Sci-Fi fans, but we've all seen miltary vehicles! The MOL laboratory project of the late sixties that was scrapped was supposed to provide survellance. The Shuttle military flights that were supposed to fly out of Vandenburg were canceled after the Challenger disaster, but the most they were supposed to do was launch and maintain those fancy spy satellites. Listen, I know the space program came out of military applications, Von Braun and his V-2s, the Redstone, Atlas, Titan military payload boosters, and so on. I'm not a fool to think that there was no military intentions behind the design. Nixon was the one who wanted a fleet of several large spacecrafts rather a larger fleet of smaller, more efficient ones that could land at conventional airports and maneuver in the atmosphere rather that land as the so-called “FLYING BRICK”. I'm sure the reason was a military consideration. Anyway, that was more than one more thing! |
Ben
Member Posts: 1896
From: Cape Canaveral, FL
Registered: May 2000
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posted 10-11-2002 06:37 PM
I don't know about guns and lasers, but I think the military use of the shuttle was to deploy military satellites (the DoD missions), and to provide survelance in some forms too...STS-99, for example, was a miltary mission to map the earth in extreme detail....they said so, and did not release the high resolution images to the public(only lower ones).I think that any true miliary activities planned were cancelled after Challenger; VAFB was supposed to be the military launch site, with Discovery as the military's own shuttle. |
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