Thank you, Slashdot. Thank you. How else would I have found out about these photographs of the Soviet Union's orbiting battle station?
The Skif and its Polyus prototype were supposed to be the Soviets' answer to Star Wars -- a spacecraft to defend against (and launch its own) anti-satellite weapons. The Polyus was launched in '87. But it couldn't get itself into a working orbit, probably because of "a faulty inertial guidance sensor," according to the Encyclopedia Astronautica. "No member of the Reagan or Bush administrations ever admitted or revealed publicly any knowledge of Polyus. The US Navy has made no statements about any attempts to investigate the wreckage of Polyus, which lies on the floor of the South Pacific."
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