in theatres, the Soviets fired a 23-mm machine gun onboard the Salyut space station orbiting the Earth. The article reported that the bursts were fired from outside
the Almaz
2
module and that the space station was equipped with special gyroscopes
and stability engines, automatically activated during the firing, to offset the thrust
caused by the recoil of the shots, which would had caused the station itself to drift
away. The cosmonauts would have also had a special periscope connected to a
viewer on their control panel to accurately aim at the targets.
Moscow never denied the statements in the Spaceflight report. Years later, the
Russian magazine Arald Fleet
3
confirmed that a machine gun had indeed been
tested in space, but only once and without a crew onboard the station. Nothing was
ever disclosed about the outcome of that stellar shooting, but it is very likely that
the bullets are still in orbit somewhere around the Earth.
In 1967, the United Nations tried to regulate the exploration of space for peaceful purposes through the Outer Space Treaty.
4
This limited or banned military
activities in low Earth orbits, lunar and even interplanetary space. However – quite
paradoxically – the treaty only included a ban for mass destruction weapons, while
conventional ones, such as the Almaz firing machine, were not even mentioned. In
addition, the discussions for the treaty were widely influenced by the crossed vetoes
among the few permanent member-states ruling the UN Security Council, which
were not willing to apply broad, clear limitations to their own space activities. So,
the document essentially became a tool to reassure public opinion.
At the same time, the Russians and the Americans were really fighting the Star
Wars against each other in multiple ways. This cosmic battle was fought on two
front lines: intelligence, or information gathering, and mutual deterrence, which
involved the deployment of weapons in orbit to intimidate the adversary.
Flying over the planet in orbit, the US and Russian spy satellites took photos
over entire territories without violating any sovereign air space. Those spacecraft
provided updated information to the intelligence control centres, overflying civil
and military sites worldwide. Between 1957 and 1991, 60% of all US satellites
and 77% of Russian ones were launched for military purposes only. Secretly,
Moscow launched 3,000
5
satellites into orbit – normally one every two or three
days – for a total of more than 100 each year. This huge number dropped to a few
dozen just a few months after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989.
6
2
History of the Almaz space stations. www.RussianSpaceWeb.com.
3
Marinin Igor, and Sergej Shamsutdinov. 1995. Almazs for the Proletariat Dictatorship. Air
Fleet Herald (on Russian), 89–91.
4
http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties/introouterspacetreaty.html.
5
Villain, Jacques. 2009. Satellites espions : histoire de l’espace militaire mondial. Paris:
Vuibert, 10.
6
idem
34 Beyond the Movies: The Real War for Space We Never Saw on Screen
the Almaz
2
module and that the space station was equipped with special gyroscopes
and stability engines, automatically activated during the firing, to offset the thrust
caused by the recoil of the shots, which would had caused the station itself to drift
away. The cosmonauts would have also had a special periscope connected to a
viewer on their control panel to accurately aim at the targets.
Moscow never denied the statements in the Spaceflight report. Years later, the
Russian magazine Arald Fleet
3
confirmed that a machine gun had indeed been
tested in space, but only once and without a crew onboard the station. Nothing was
ever disclosed about the outcome of that stellar shooting, but it is very likely that
the bullets are still in orbit somewhere around the Earth.
In 1967, the United Nations tried to regulate the exploration of space for peaceful purposes through the Outer Space Treaty.
4
This limited or banned military
activities in low Earth orbits, lunar and even interplanetary space. However – quite
paradoxically – the treaty only included a ban for mass destruction weapons, while
conventional ones, such as the Almaz firing machine, were not even mentioned. In
addition, the discussions for the treaty were widely influenced by the crossed vetoes
among the few permanent member-states ruling the UN Security Council, which
were not willing to apply broad, clear limitations to their own space activities. So,
the document essentially became a tool to reassure public opinion.
At the same time, the Russians and the Americans were really fighting the Star
Wars against each other in multiple ways. This cosmic battle was fought on two
front lines: intelligence, or information gathering, and mutual deterrence, which
involved the deployment of weapons in orbit to intimidate the adversary.
Flying over the planet in orbit, the US and Russian spy satellites took photos
over entire territories without violating any sovereign air space. Those spacecraft
provided updated information to the intelligence control centres, overflying civil
and military sites worldwide. Between 1957 and 1991, 60% of all US satellites
and 77% of Russian ones were launched for military purposes only. Secretly,
Moscow launched 3,000
5
satellites into orbit – normally one every two or three
days – for a total of more than 100 each year. This huge number dropped to a few
dozen just a few months after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989.
6
2
History of the Almaz space stations. www.RussianSpaceWeb.com.
3
Marinin Igor, and Sergej Shamsutdinov. 1995. Almazs for the Proletariat Dictatorship. Air
Fleet Herald (on Russian), 89–91.
4
http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties/introouterspacetreaty.html.
5
Villain, Jacques. 2009. Satellites espions : histoire de l’espace militaire mondial. Paris:
Vuibert, 10.
6
idem
34 Beyond the Movies: The Real War for Space We Never Saw on Screen