Scale model of the Almaz (Salyut 5) Military Space Station, measuring approximately 10.5″ x 3.5″ x 12.5″, mounted on a metal ring stand with wooden base.

In the 1960s, the fear of attack on spacecraft was real, with both sides of the Iron Curtain developing anti-satellite weapons. It seemed perfectly logical that military and piloted spacecraft would need self-defense weapons.

On October 12, 1964, only two days before the overthrow of Khrushchev, Vladimir Chelomei obtained permission to begin development of a larger manned military space station, the Almaz. This 20-ton station would take three cosmonauts to orbit in a single launch of his uprated UR-500K Proton rocket. Chelomei's Almaz was the only manned military spacecraft ever actually flown. The project continued through many twists and turns over a period of 25 years. As with many Soviet space endeavors, the technical merits of the project are impossible to separate from the combative personalities and intense politics involved. The stations that flew were equipped with an unprecedented array of sensors for 'man-in-the-loop' observation and targeting of mobile ground units. Combat equipment included a space-to-space gun, which was tested in orbit. In the end, the station officially proved that manned systems were not a cost-effective method for space reconnaissance and targeting. However, the designs of the Almaz station and its TKS resupply vehicle lived on as the Russian space station modules for the Salyut, Mir, and the International Space Station programs.

However, in the early days of Almaz and the US 'Manned Orbiting Laboratory' spy-ship scheme it was thought in some quarters that the world was on the brink of possible extra-terrestrial war. At least one of the Almaz orbiters was secretly armed with a powerful automatic aircraft cannon, intended for use in the event of a space battle with American craft and test-fired in orbit.

Only after the fall of the U.S.S.R. did Russian sources reveal that the cannon had actually been fired in orbit. It happened on January 24, 1975, onboard the Salyut 3 space station. Worried about how firing a giant cannon would impact the outpost itself, Soviet officials scheduled the test firing just hours before the planned de-orbiting of the station, and long after the departure of the crew on July 19, 1974. The outpost ignited its jet thrusters simultaneously with firing the cannon to counteract the weapon’s powerful recoil. According to various sources, the cannon fired from one to three blasts, reportedly firing around twenty shells in all. They burned up in the atmosphere, too. The results of the tests still remain classified.

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