[FPSPACE] Russia has the corner on guns in space

[James Oberg]

Russia has the corner on guns in space

Soyuz crews carry handguns amid debate about bigger weaponry

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23131359/

By James Oberg, NBC News space analyst // Special to MSNBC

Feb 12, 2008 

   HOUSTON - All self-respecting "space cadets" of the 1950s carried holstered sidearms to fend off the spies, wandering carnivores and assorted bug-eyed monsters they might meet in space. That was Hollywood, of course. The notion that modern space cadets blast off carrying guns is so silly that space officials won't even talk about the idea. But that does not mean the astronauts are not armed.

   In fact, Moscow's latest diplomatic offensive to get a treaty banning weapons in space may be shot down by one of the proposed pact's little-noticed provisions: Nobody else should get to put weapons in space, but Russia gets to keep the ones it already has.

   Cosmonauts regularly carry handguns on their Soyuz spacecraft - and actually, that's not unreasonable. There are practical and historical justifications.