Armed astronauts

[Trailboss60]

From Alan Korwin's newsletter



In a report found at Florida-based WESH-TV.com and at other sites, the Russian built International Space Station keeps a gun on board. NASA and federal officials have been quiet about the RKBA in space.

The type of gun is a mystery, but it doesn't seem like anything most people have ever seen. Cosmonauts have apparently been carrying firearms into space routinely in their survival kits.
http://www.wesh.com/news/15298911/detail.html

MSNBC, in typical gun-ignorance fashion, rambles on about spy control, bug-eyed alien monsters, a practical need for arms in off-course tundra landings and asks the innevitable, "Is it safe?" question, disregarding the more obvious question (to people who understand the role of firearms), "Is it safe without one?"

According to the posting, "astronauts and cosmonauts take a few hours to fire several rounds from each chamber off the deck of the training ship." It was unclear why it takes a few hours to fire several rounds.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23131359/
One astronaut describes, "firing flares, birdshot and a hard slug from its three barrels, during sea and winter survival training," and mysteriously says, "I can't say it is very unique."

The report also says, "Astronaut Dave Wolf, who spent four months aboard Russia's Mir space station in 1997-98, agreed that the space weapon was 'a wonderful gun. I found it to be well-balanced, highly accurate and convenient to use.'"

MSNBC says it is an "all-in-one weapon with three barrels and a folding stock that doubles as a shovel and contains a swing-out machete." I am not making this up. "Three types of ammunition -- rifle bullets, shotgun shells and flares -- come in a belt attached to the gun."

A retail selling price or model number was not listed. If anyone can find a picture, do send it along.

[Captain America]

Originally Posted by Trailboss60

From Alan Korwin's newsletter...
A retail selling price or model number was not listed....

If it's like their other equipment, it costs $35,000.00.

It's probably about as useful as my $1.50 Tin Foil Hat I wear to keep aliens from
reading my mind.

[Kimber4Ever]

Any gun is better than no gun, but if I'm not mistaken, a shotgun and a folding Glock brand shovel could do all this gun does, but better. Shotguns can fire shells, slugs, and flares very accurately and at long distance, so why would astronauts and cosmonauts need a belt fed rifle/shotty/flare gun/shovel?

[kann]

I'm sure the gun is just as much for "space paranoid" cosmo/astronauts as it is for ET.

Sounds very interesting, though. Would love to see a picture of it.

[T-RO]

Aliens...duh

[dfariswheel]

The Russians put a gun on all flights as a survival/animal defense weapon.
Remember, the Soyuz capsules land in Siberia where there's lots of wolves and bears, and sometimes, the capsule is off enough that it can take a while until it's found.
There's a Soyuz, complete with emergency gun docked at the space station at all times as an emergency re-entry "life boat" in case there's a catastrophic accident on the station.

For an excellent account of this, check the book "Too Far From Home: a story of life and death in space" by Chris Jones.

After the Columbia broke up on re-entry, Jones and another US astronaut were "marooned" on the space station.
Finally, they returned with a Russian cosmonaut in a Soyuz ship.
They were off course and weren't found for some time.
They were very weak from months in space, and there's an excellent account of their Russian pilot using the emergency gun to hold off wolves.

Here's a link with a picture of the gun:
http://suzymchale.com/kosmonavtka/trainsurv.html

Here's a good description of the gun and why it's carried on missions:
http://modern-war.suite101.com/artic..._guns_in_space

[depusm12]

Actually our astronauts during the Apollo missions (maybe all our early space flights) were armed with pistols (S&W model 39's or 59's IIRC), in the event when they splashed down the Russians tried to capture them.

[40dcoe]

In case Richard Kiel shows up. In a Moonraker.

Joe

[T-RO]

This thread got me thinking.. I wonder what type of "contingency plan" they have should the space station be taken over. I mean what if one of the astronauts goes space crazy and kills all the others. Whats the plan for getting up there and retaking the station? What kind of damage could he do to earth from up there etc... Hmmm.

[Cyborg]

Copy of a Contender



A firearm in space would have the same purpose as on the ground, in case someone doesn't want to follow orders.

[dfariswheel]

Originally Posted by Cyborg

Copy of a Contender

No it's not.
The Thompson-Center Contender is a single shot firearm.
The Cosmonaut gun is a special three barreled gun.
Similar only in that they break open to load.

[Kimber4Ever]

I thought the earlier article said belt fed. Weird....

[Cyborg]

this is a little better.
Not belt fed, but ammo is stored that way to be carried.











The TP-82 pistol (Russian: ТП-82) is a triple-barreled Soviet firearm that was carried by cosmonauts on space missions.
It is intended as a survival aid to be used after landings and before recovery in the Siberian wilderness. The upper two smoothbore barrels use 12.5 mm caliber ammunition, and the lower rifled barrel use 5.45 mm caliber ammunition. The pistol can be used for hunting, to defend against predators and for visual and auditory distress signals. The detachable buttstock is also a machete sheath.
TP-82s were carried regularly on Soviet and Russian space missions from 1986 to 2006. They were part of the Soyuz Portable Survival Kit (Носимый аварийный запас, Nosimyi Avariynyi Zapas, NAZ). In 2007, the media reported that the remaining ammunition for the TP-82 had become unusable and that a regular automatic pistol would be used on future missions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TP-82,

LINKY


And to quote the martians, "ack aack, aack aack"

[Cyborg]

[gunzncarz]

I think I recall reading that during the Cold War on the early manned space missions, the Russian cosmonauts brought their trusty Makarov 9x18 along for the ride.

[Bluegreen76]

This is old news.

The Russians, ex-commie scum that they may be, had enough sense to put a firearm in their survival kits in case of a landing in wilderness. Honestly it sounded quite reasonable to me. When the anti-gun bigot, liberal bed-wetting media found out what the Ruskies had done they put out a B.S. story on it. When the soviets make more sense about guns than the U.S. and western European media, you know that something is really F-ed Up.

[1001001]

In case they see one of these guys window peeping on the space station.

[Trailboss60]

Thanks for your contributions guys, I forwarded this thread to Alan Korwin.


{Alan runs the http://www.gunlaws.com/ website and has authored many books}

[ben589]

1001001,

Who, the Pope?

[Mark Milton]

Back in the 70s, they used to show a picture of an astronaut outside the ship and if you looked closely, you could see the wooden handle of a Smith model 10 poking out of what appeared to be a chest holster.

A friend of mine had an uncle in the Air Force back then and he asked him about it for me once.
The uncle told him the gun was basically for survival purposes specificially in case the astronaut crash landed in hostile territory (Cuba, eastern Europe, etc.)
Also, it was thought that in an emergency it was better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. For example, the recoil could launch you back towards your ship in case you were floating away.

He said the reason it was a wheelgun was two fold. One it was common in the Air Force and NASA armouries at the time. Also, there was some concern that semi-autos would not function in zero gravity due to the weight being altered for springs and bullets and slide cycling. Also, there was more concern about slides cutting gloves than there was from lead spitting around a wheelgun barrel.

[HiVelSword]

Originally Posted by Kimber4Ever

I thought the earlier article said belt fed. Weird....

They said the ammo came in a belt. It's probably a bandoleer.

Edit: Whoops, I should have scrolled one more post down.

[DevilDave1911]

could you imagine one of these guys out on a space walk, fires his "space" 12g and it propels him off into space never to be found again...doh!!! LOL remember in a vacuum (space), whatever is set in motion will go on forever until an opposing force stops it or changes its direction...it will never stop.

[buddypol]

1. occassional "space rage?"
2. rebirth of the cold war in space?
3. or control disgruntled female cosmonauts?
4. UFO's that get too close?

[lance22]

Originally Posted by buddypol

1. occassional "space rage?"
2. rebirth of the cold war in space?
3. or control disgruntled female cosmonauts?
4. UFO's that get too close?

That's right! If a UFO or a Chinese shuttle starts trippin' n all on their space then they roll down the window and do a drive-by. Let's see those Chinese re-enter with a bullet hole in their windshild! Foo! How else they gonna do that?

[FreeAmerican]

Originally Posted by lance22

That's right! If a UFO or a Chinese shuttle starts trippin' n all on their space then they roll down the window and do a drive-by. Let's see those Chinese re-enter with a bullet hole in their windshild! Foo! How else they gonna do that?

Don't forget those Damned dirty Apes you have to deal with!