|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Blazing Saddles: Guns In Space! Sleuths?
Mad Scientist wrote in newsXu_c.160$e%o1.144
@news04.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com: *yawn" Stop posting HTML in an ASCII newsgroup. Blazing Saddles: Guns In Space! When the movie Star Wars came out in 1977, remember how many jokes were made about Luke and Han blazing away at Imperial fighters with the ack-ack guns on the Millennium Falcon? In the July 1998 issue of Spaceflight (the popular publication of the British Interplanetary Society), there's a article1 about the military version of the Soviet Salyut space station, which flew as Salyuts 3 and 5 between 1974 and 1977. (The name "Salyut" was applied to two entirely different space station programs, one military and the other civilian, which used completely different hardware built by different design bureaux.2 The hardware flown in the Salyut 3 and 5 missions was referred to as Almaz (Diamond) within the Soviet space program.) Virtually no information was available about the military Salyuts until recently, when access was opened up to a full-scale training model at the Moscow Aviation Institute. Well, guess what--Salyut 3 had a machine gun. The station had a 23 mm rapid-fire cannon mounted on the outside, along the long axis of the station "for defence against US space-based inspectors/interceptors". Combat engagements would have been leisurely by Star Wars or fighter jet standards, since the only way to aim the cannon was to point the entire station at the target, using its attitude gyros. A periscope connected to a visor on the main control panel allowed drawing a bead on the intended target. Mo http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/spaceguns/ -- "I argue very well. Ask any of my remaining friends. I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don't even invite me." -Dave Barry |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Paul Lawler wrote: Mad Scientist wrote in newsXu_c.160$e%o1.144 : *yawn" Sociopath; stop harassing me. Stop posting HTML in an ASCII newsgroup. Blazing Saddles: Guns In Space! When the movie Star Wars came out in 1977, remember how many jokes were made about Luke and Han blazing away at Imperial fighters with the ack-ack guns on the Millennium Falcon? In the July 1998 issue of Spaceflight (the popular publication of the British Interplanetary Society), there's a article1 about the military version of the Soviet Salyut space station, which flew as Salyuts 3 and 5 between 1974 and 1977. (The name "Salyut" was applied to two entirely different space station programs, one military and the other civilian, which used completely different hardware built by different design bureaux.2 The hardware flown in the Salyut 3 and 5 missions was referred to as Almaz (Diamond) within the Soviet space program.) Virtually no information was available about the military Salyuts until recently, when access was opened up to a full-scale training model at the Moscow Aviation Institute. Well, guess what--Salyut 3 had a machine gun. The station had a 23 mm rapid-fire cannon mounted on the outside, along the long axis of the station "for defence against US space-based inspectors/interceptors". Combat engagements would have been leisurely by Star Wars or fighter jet standards, since the only way to aim the cannon was to point the entire station at the target, using its attitude gyros. A periscope connected to a visor on the main control panel allowed drawing a bead on the intended target. Mo http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/spaceguns/ -- Usenet is filled with abusive and obsessive-compulsive-sociopathic personality disorder sufferers which makes it all the more easily ignored, dismissed and ridiculed. |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
"Mad Scientist" wrote in message . rogers.com... Paul Lawler wrote: Mad Scientist wrote in newsXu_c.160$e%o1.144 : *yawn" Sociopath; stop harassing me. Parrot, Only a kook would think you are being harrased. Now be a polite little boy, and turn off your html in your posts. |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Gravity as Falling Space | Henry Haapalainen | Science | 1 | September 4th 04 04:08 PM |
Clueless pundits (was High-flight rate Medium vs. New Heavy lift launchers) | Rand Simberg | Space Science Misc | 18 | February 14th 04 03:28 AM |
International Space Station Science - One of NASA's rising stars | Jacques van Oene | Space Station | 0 | December 27th 03 01:32 PM |
China's Space Plans | Steve Dufour | Misc | 0 | October 17th 03 02:42 AM |