[FPSPACE] Bamford's "Astrospies" Failure

[Kosmos327 at aol.com]

While I am not an expert on the U. S. Air Force's MOL project, I  do know 
enough about it to realize that James Bamford's "Astrospies" (aired on  NOVA 12 
Feb) failed to give a fair balance between the Soviet and American  manned 
"spy-station" programs. He compared the full potential of the Manned  Orbiting 
Laboratory to a grossly scaled back Almaz program. In fact, Almaz  was 
misrepresented a number of times during this broadcast.
 
Mr. Bamford begins his "revelation" of the mysterious Manned Orbiting  
Laboratory with the discovery of a pair of blue spacesuits and their connection  to 
a list of mysterious Air Force astronauts. He goes on to find and interview  
the still living astronauts on this list. He then attempts balances this 
program  by revealing a portion of the Soviet Almaz program and interviewing pilots 
of  the Almaz stations flown as Salyut stations.
 
In fairness, Mr. Bamford should have balanced this list of American  Military 
Astronauts with the Almaz Cosmonauts of Chelomei's OKB-52 Design  Bureau. 
This secret group of cosmonauts, chosen in 1966, were trained to fly the  "real" 
Almaz station, which just like MOL, would have been launched topped with  a 
manned capsule. But unlike MOL, there would have been additional manned TKS  
modules launched to join with, and enlarge the station. While he did touch  
lightly on this, his focus was more on the Almaz program scaled back AFTER  the MOL 
program was canceled. 
 
OPS-4 was also misrepresented as a fully intact un-launched Almaz station.  
Chelomei's original intent was to launch OPS-4 as the first true Almaz  
station, equipped with it's own manned capsule and a TKS docking port. This  station 
would also have a Mech-K Synthetic Aperture Radar replacing the  AGAT camera, 
the advantage being that this system, while lower in resolution,  could see 
through clouds and ocean waters. It would also have a new  Shchit-2 space to 
space missile system (for defense, of course), Orlan Suits,  and a new broadcast 
antenna similar to Mir's Altair system. It was later  scaled "back" (or 
"forward" depending on your point of view) to an  unmanned version equipped with two 
TKS docking ports. AT some point  communication, SAR, and rendezvous systems 
were removed from the OPS-4, possibly  for use with other stations. It's 
unclear whether the Shchit-2 system was ever  constructed and attached to the 
station.
 
Only by seeing the full potential of the Almaz program can we appreciate  the 
scale at which it was cut back. And by failing to show this, James  Bamford 
failed in his attempt to show the real story of the "Astrospies".
 
David L. Rickman




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