Polyus was a Soviet super secret weapons payload which was part of the Soviet Union Star Wars programme. It was launched by the Energia rocket in 15 May 1987. This was Energia's first payload.
Throughout the early 1980s, the Soviets were working on their own versions of Star Wars, weapons systems to be placed in space. When the Buran shuttle project was delayed, the opportunity arose to use the first Energia Launch Vehicle to instead launch a 100-ton payload of space weapons hardware. This super-secret weapons paylaod became known as Polyus, or Pole. When it was launched in May 1987, Soviet space officials simply called it 'size and weight dummy mock-up'.
Polyus was actually a black cylinder 37m long and 4.1 m in diameter, with an off-the-shelf space tug at one end. Polyus possessed deployable tracking targets and large tanks of gases to be released into the ionosphere. The spacecraft also carried a 'Skif-DM' apparatus (probably an anti-satellite laser) and according to some reports, a laser rapid-fire aircraft cannon.
Although the project had been approved by earlier Soviet Leaders, apparently Mikhail Gorbachev was never fully briefed. When he travelled to Baikonur to watch the launch, he reportedly was horrified to discover that the Soviet Union was about to orbit a 'death star' that would jeopardise his diplomatic campaigns against Star Wars. Gorbachev allowed the rocket test to proceed but ordered that the payload never be activated once it reached orbit. As it turns out the space tug misfired and Polyus fell into the Pacific Ocean.
Books
Energiya-Buran:
The Soviet Space Shuttle
from
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Reference:
Popular Science magazine: Secret Soviet Spacecraft, page 86, October 1998.
Picture from http://www.linkhobby.com/start/st_energ_polus.htm
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Updated: Sunday 23rd, October, 2011
