OT - Space Station Crew Can Access Gun (Horrors!)

[don Tomás]

File this under "Give Me A Break". Apparently, it just now getting around that the astronauts have access to a gun on the Soyuz Space Station. The gun has been there (in a survival kit between some seats) as long as the Soyuz has been in orbit. There seems to be some surprise that the survival gear would include a firearm. Heck, I kinda assumed that the gear would include some type of gun; you never know when you might have to make an emergency descent into Detroit or Washington DC.
Every military plane I've every flown in had some kinda survival weapon.

They're worried about an astronaut going around the bend and taking out the whole crew... bet he only has to flip a switch or two to vent the cabin atmosphere to the outside.

Hmmm... what if they keep the gun disassembled, inoperable and with a triggerlock (a la Wash DC laws)??? No worries then, by gum...
Tom

Space Station Crew Can Access Gun

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Astronauts aboard the International Space Station apparently have access to a gun.

Russian Cosmonauts carry a gun on their Soyuz space capsule, which is attached to the space station.

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Every spacecraft carries survival gear for crash landings, and the Russian Soyuz has a kit that includes the gun.

A photo of a space tourist using one version of the weapon is posted on his Web site.

But although the gun has been there for as long as the space station has been in orbit, its existence is kept quiet. NASA and Russian officials won't talk publicly about it.

Former NASA engineer Jim Oberg, who is an author and journalist, wrote about the gun on his Web site. He said the gun has no place in an environment where people are under such high stress.

"There have been cases of severe psychological strain on people in space, strain that they have taken out -- that their shipmates worried about the ultimate actions," Oberg said.

Experts said the idea of an astronaut losing control was unthinkable until one year ago, when Lisa Nowak shattered the myth.

Her own attorney said she was insane when arrested for hunting down another woman, and prosecutors said she was heavily armed.

Nowak had flown in space just seven months earlier.

Oberg knows an astronaut bent on orbital manslaughter could simply throw any number of switches to do the job, but he said the crews would be safer if the gun was locked up or left on Earth.

The gun is located in a survival kit between some seats aboard the Soyuz spacecraft. All the crewmembers know about it, and U.S. astronauts who fly aboard the Soyuz are trained to use it.

[Blackhawk]

Space station fly by shooting.

Johnny

[Old Savage]

I'll disregard anything else OBerg has to say.

[Blaine]

Hmmm....not a situation of great gravity.

[kirkwood]

Wonder what handgun the Russians take with them? I can see having it if there is a potential for coming down in the farthest reaches of Siberia or Outer Mongolia. I think I read sometime back in the 1970s that US capsules in the orbital Mercury and the Gemini series carried a .45 on board, but that was dropped when weight became a critical issue in getting to the moon on the Apollo missions.

[Blackhawk]

A S&W #3 in 44 Russian?

[pharmseller]

Maybe it's a ray gun to repel the little green men from Mars if they try to invade. Again. It's been done before, you know. My brother got probed by an alien. At least that's what he says.

Quinn

[Kilroy6644]

Wonder what handgun the Russians take with them? I can see having it if there is a potential for coming down in the farthest reaches of Siberia or Outer Mongolia. I think I read sometime back in the 1970s that US capsules in the orbital Mercury and the Gemini series carried a .45 on board, but that was dropped when weight became a critical issue in getting to the moon on the Apollo missions.

It's a specially made weapon. From http://suzymchale.com/kosmonavtka/trainsurv.html :

There is a gun on board, designated ТП-82, TP-82. It is a three-barrel pistol that can be used for firing signals and shooting game. The two upper barrels are smooth-bore firing 12.5 mm cartridges; the lower barrel is rifled and fires 5.45 mm bullet cartridges. The machete provided in the NAZ survival kit can be utilized as a butt for the gun.

According to James Oberg in Star-Crossed Orbits:

The triple-barrelled gun can fire flares, shotgun shells, or rifle bullets, depending on how it’s loaded. The gun and about 10 rounds for each barrel are carried in a triangle-shaped survival canister stowed next to the commander’s couch. The gun’s shoulder stock opens up into a machete for chopping firewood.

From the Angkasawan blog:

The pistol is intended to be used to kill animals for self-protection or for hunting, and is especially made for Russian cosmonauts. It has three barrels – two at the top and one at the bottom. The top two barrels fire flares, so that the rescue team can determine our location. The bottom barrel acts as a shotgun, and fires real bullets. In a crew of three, only the Commander will use the pistol, but he can pass the duty to the other crewmembers.

On the Soyuz TMA-11 flight in October 2007 the pistol was not carried for the first time in 20 years, as reported in the Guardian. There was a shortage of the special ammunition required for the gun – the original ammunition had deteriorated and no new bullets were available. Soyuz commander Yurii Malenchenko instead carried an ordinary pistol/handgun.

[Jayhawker]

Survival gear for crash landings???? From that height, I think I'd need a lot more than a firearm.

[JimT]

It would be fun shooting downward and watching the fireball as it entered the atmosphere. Super Tracers!

[Blaine]

Seriously, now.....Wouldn't shooting a firearm in space result in the shooter being propelled backwards?

[444Hal]

Would be a heck of a place for some plinking. No drop, no wind.

Just need somebody to go up and put a bullseye on the moon.

[crawdaddyjim]

Oberg is a wack job and I mean that in the nicest way possible. Nowak was not heavily armed. She had duct tape and a hammer and pepper spray! She also had not been able to pass her psych eval and so was grounded due to marital problems.

Now seriously I am not sure what good a projectile firing weapon would do you in outer space. The bullet would ricochet around and maybe kill the shooter or embed itself into something vital for everyones survival. There is not any excess room in the space station or the shuttle. Now the med kit is about as extensive as you can get and not be in a level one trauma center. The likely hood of someone wigging out and poisoning everybody would be a more likely scenario.

[North Bender]

The first pistol in space was the Makarov, caliber 9x18. The original Cosmonaut space suits were even constructed with a pouch (holster) to hold the Makarov. They sent it up in all missions because the Russian re-entry ballistic calculations cab be a bit dicey and sometimes a Cosmonaut may dance with wolves while waiting to be picked up. That's still the reason one is kept in the Soyuz space capsul.

[JimT]

Seriously, now.....Wouldn't shooting a firearm in space result in the shooter being propelled backwards?

Hang on to something with one hand, shoot with the other. That's why you use a pistol in space.

I have been propelled backwards by some firearms while still on earth!

[jp]

What? Didn't you guys see Independence Day?

[BruceB]

It would be fun shooting downward and watching the fireball as it entered the atmosphere. Super Tracers!

Is that where we get "shooting" stars?

[2571]

I live in Detroit. If Ivan lands here, he'll need a .50 cal Barrett to defend himself in most of our neighborhoods. Forget the Makarov, we give those to little kids as play toys.

[tman]

the .325 win short mag is the smallest caliber recommended for martien deer. why risk a smaller calibier, for a trophy of a lifetime. a trip to mars is very expensive. a 9mm willl bounce off of an enraged, drug induced martien, he will kill you before you can empty your 15 round mag. the purple mountain bears require at least a .700 h&h. the shuttles's gonna have to be enlarged to carry all that armourment.

[Bogie35]

It's an admission that hostile extraterrestrials exist. Why else would you need a gun in outer space?

bogie