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| Science Forum Index » Space Forum » Evidence for STS-41G lasing, October 1984? |
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| Allen Thomson |
 Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2005 10:09 am |
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Guest
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I recently came across a Russian article (well, it's in
Portuguese, but by a Russian space writer) that purports
to give a bit of new-to-me information about the
lasing of Challenger by a Soviet laser at Sary Shagan.
Presumably he's talking about the reported incident
of 10 October 1984.
I thought it was interesting but, on looking around for
information about the incident, I'm beginning to wonder
what, if anything, actually took place. There are plenty
of stories, but zip that I can find in the way of primary
sources, and the suspicion that this story is an urban
legend is growing.
Concisely, the story is that STS-41G Challenger, flying
over Sary Shagan on 10 October 1984, was illuminated by
a laser that interfered with unspecified equipment and
may have affected the crew. The US subsequently sent
a diplomatic protest to the USSR about the incident.
Is there any real evidence that anything like that
actually happened? Were any of the astronauts on
the flight ever asked about it? |
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| Allen Thomson |
| Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:28 pm |
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Andrew Gray wrote:
[quote:c6e07801ec]My personal interpretation is that it turned up post-1990,
some Russian technician telling war stories that got
exaggerated and then had "real" details attached. Anyone
know where it was first sighted?
[/quote:c6e07801ec]
I'm looking around, making inquiries, but haven't yet ID-ed
it before 2000. Soviet Military Power 1985-1986-1987, which
you'd certainly think would have made the vile deed public,
didn't. The closest it comes are statements like this from
1987, http://www.fas.org/irp/dia/product/smp_87_ch3.htm ,
The USSR's laser program is considerably larger than US
efforts and involves over 10,000 scientists and engineers
as well as more than a half-dozen major research and
development facilities and test ranges. Much of this
research takes place at the Sary-Shagan Missile Test
Center, where ABM testing also is conducted. At Sary-
Shagan alone, the Soviets are estimated to have several
lasers for air defense and two lasers probably capable of
damaging some components of satellites in orbit, one of
which could be used in feasibility testing for ballistic
missile defense applications.
BTW, the article that piqued my interest is
http://consrio.narod.ru/br/artigos/tecnika/49.html .
I tried to find it in English or Russian and failed.
Fortunately journalistic Portuguese is not too unlike
journalistic Spanish. |
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| Scott Hedrick |
| Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2005 4:03 pm |
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"Andrew Gray" <andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk> wrote in message
news:slrndae71t.6uk.andrew.gray@compsoc.dur.ac.uk...
[quote:7b320224d2]My personal interpretation is that it turned up post-1990, some Russian
technician telling war stories that got exaggerated and then had "real"
details attatched. Anyone know where it was first sighted?
[/quote:7b320224d2]
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