Revealing the top secret Soviet space rocket

Recently, the Russian TV station Zvezda gave the world its first look at the top secret Shchit-2 ‘space rocket’, or at least a mock-up of it.
This is a rocket-like space weapon from the Soviet era primarily intended to protect the Almaz military space station from potential threats. The Shchit-2 – the next project of the Shchit-1 self-defense system – features a 23mm cannon – the R-23M – which is the only gun fired in space, at least as far as we know of it.

Soviet secret space rocket NPO Mashinostroyenia is a Russian state space development company, which grew out of a Soviet entity, known simply as OKB-52, responsible for the development of the Almaz space station, among other things. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s visit to NPO Mashinostroyenia in early 2021 offers the best and most complete look at the Shchit-1 system to date. The Almaz program was a covert effort to develop military space stations, primarily equipped to carry out intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, hidden within the Saylut civilian space station project. The Almaz effort dates back to the 1960s, only to be officially declassified in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union planned to “weapon” the Almaz stations from the start, fearing attacks with US anti-satellite weapons – including small but maneuverable “killer satellites”. tall and more traditional interceptors. An example of the Shchit-1 system actually sent into space with the Almaz OPS-2 satellite. The Soviet Union also conducted a remote live-fire test with the system on January 24, 1975, the last day of the station in orbit. The results of the test remained confidential and the next Almaz space station, OPS-3, was launched without any weapons installed. OPS-4, which has never been to space, is believed to carry the Shchit-2 system. However, there is no indication that Shchit-2, although its general existence was previously known, has ever entered space and details about the system are still very limited. As for the “weapon” itself, Leonard Smirichevsky, the current head of NPO Mashinostroyenia, described it to a reporter for TV Zvezda as having four main components. The base of the system was a solid-fuel rocket engine, which was then attached to a rotary stabilization system consisting of a rotating wheel with blade-shaped radiators. There’s a hybrid warhead-propulsion section followed by a nozzle-like radar seeker at the front. By far, the engine – warhead part is the most interesting part. Outwardly, it appears to be a circular array of small, grenade-like charges, which one imagines would create a shrapnel cloud especially dangerous to other objects in the vacuum of space. . However, these projectiles are really solid and are designed to act as interceptors, destroying anything they hit through sheer force of impact. No one knows what happened to Shchit-2 after the Almaz program ended in 1978. It is also unclear why the Russians decided to consider the system at this time. The incident comes amid new discussions about anti-satellite weapons in orbit, including interceptors and guided-energy weapons, as well as killer satellites, and the development of systems this system, both in Russia and the United States, among other countries. Space weapon Shchit-2 on display at NPO Mashinostroyenia. Almaz . military space station The Almaz military space stations, which first began operating in the early 1960s, were intended to be armed from the outset. Almaz stations are expected to be versatile military platforms in space. This plan is for the first types configured primarily for a wide range of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions with cameras and many other sensor systems. The delay in the development of the sensor package affected the entire program. In 1971, the Soviet Union launched a civilian space station – Salyut – incorporating some of the design work developed under the Almaz program, along with components from the Soyuz spacecraft. The Salyut program eventually provided cover for the Almaz space station. Of the seven Salyut space stations launched between 1971 and 1991, three are actually of the military type. The first Almaz station, publicly known as Salyut-2 and also known as OPS-1, entered service in 1973. However, an accident on board shortly after launch forced the Soviet Union to abandon it. it before a real crew could be dispatched to join. OPS-2, also known as Salyut-3, followed in 1974. The station was successfully put into orbit on June 25, 1974. The crew stayed there for 15 days to test the Earth-viewing camera with the onboard Agat-1 telescope, which was said to be able to produce high-resolution images of the ground. The second crew failed to reach the station in late 1974 after their Soyuz spacecraft crashed. The third mission to OPS-2 was later aborted and it operated in unmanned mode until leaving orbit on January 24, 1975. In September 1974, personnel on the ground remotely recovered a film “pod” from the Agat-1 camera, then returned to Earth and recovered. The next Almaz space stations, called OPS-3 and Salyut-5, have no weapons on board, at least as far as we know. Plans for an OPS-4 station include a new Shchit-2 self-defense system, reportedly designed to fire interceptor missiles, but no images of that weapon have been made public. The Soviet Union also developed specialized self-defense guns for cosmonauts, such as the TP-82, but they were intended for use on Earth, not in space.