Author Sergey Solodovnik
In those distant times, when the development of the first orbital space station Salyut-1 was being prepared, it could have been equipped with a very curious payload.
Not just of military, and even not of strategic significance. But of geopolitical significance.
Here is what was revealed by the successor of OKB-1, where the chief designer until his death was Sergei Pavlovich Korolyov – today the company is named Energiya Corporation:
«The station could have been supplemented with a system for controlling and managing global missiles and combat artificial Earth satellites».
Global missiles – a term of the era, read – intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Combat satellites – devices that could damage, destroy, or de-orbit enemy space objects.
Yes, the developers guaranteed that all the listed tools for achieving absolute strategic dominance by the USSR were achievable on the then-Soviet component base.
And that all the additional features would not exceed the planned weight of the orbital station, namely – 20 tons.
The opinion is simple. Given that only 16 months passed from the design phase to testing – an achievement that the current space complex is as far from as Mars.
And the mystery is this. Who shelved the military equipment of the first Salyut?
After all, if Gagarin was put on a modified R-7 from Korolyov's OKB-1, then here the military could have hitched a ride on a peaceful platform. There was international PR, here – a civilian truck was transporting the military along the way.
And yet, apparently, there were no Western agents of influence in our Politburo before Gorbachev.
Did Yuri Vladimirovich himself scare Brezhnev with an American retaliatory strike for our attempt to militarize space?
Just as he scared the same Americans with missiles in Afghanistan nine years later?