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The Almaz (Russian: Алмаз - "Diamond") program was a series of military space stations (or "Orbital Piloted Station" - OPS) launched by the Soviet Union under cover of the civilian Salyut program after 1971.

Three Almaz stations were launched: Salyut 2, Salyut 3 and Salyut 5.

Salyut 2 failed shortly after achieving orbit, but Salyut 3 and Salyut 5 both conducted successful manned testing. Following Salyut 5, the Soviet Ministry of Defense judged in 1978 that the time consumed by station maintenance outweighed the benefits with regard to automatic reconnaissance satellites.

Contents 1 Orbital Piloted Stations (OPS) 1.1 OPS-1 (Salyut 2) 1.2 OPS-2 or (Salyut 3) 1.3 OPS-3 or (Salyut 5) 1.4 OPS-4 1.5 Almaz-T (unmanned) 2 Development 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

The first Almaz station (OPS-1) was launched on April 3, 1973. For secrecy purposes, it was announced as Salyut 2 upon reaching the orbit. A crew was prepared to fly to the station but a an acident days after the launch left OPS-1 disabled and depressurized.

The OPS-2, announced as Salyut 3, was launched on June 25, 1974. The crew of the Soyuz-14 spacecraft spent 15 days onboard the station in July 1974. The second expedition launched toward OPS-2 in August 1974, failed to reach the station. The station conducted a successful test firing on a target satellite using a on board aircraft cannon. Salyut-3 was deorbited in January 1975.

The OPS-3, announced after the launch as Salyut 5, entered orbit on June 22, 1976. It was visited by two crews in the summer of 1976 and winter of 1977.

The next Almaz station, OPS-4, was grounded due to lack of funds. The station featured two unguided missiles instead of the aircraft cannon of previous stations.

Following cancellation of the program, the Almaz station was downgraded to a unmanned heavy radar-carrying reconnaissance satellite. Three such satellites have been launched, two of which successfully worked in orbit.

• Almaz-T - The first Almaz-T blasted off from Baikonur on October 29, 1986. It did not reach orbit due to the failure of the first and second stages of the Proton launcher to separate. The safety system then destroyed the vehicle.

• Cosmos-1870 - On July 25, 1987, the second Almaz-T spacecraft successfully reached orbit with an inclination 71.92 degrees toward the Equator and it was officially identified as Cosmos-1870. The spacecraft functioned for two years, providing radar imagery with the resolution as high as 25 meters, until it was deorbited on July 30, 1989.

• Almaz-1 - The third Almaz-T spacecraft was launched on March 31, 1991 under the name Almaz-1. After the launch a failure of the communications antenna designed to downlink the imagery via the Luch relay satellite was noted. Also one of the solar panels failed to deploy completely, leaving the main radar panel of the spacecraft partially blocked. After 18 months of successful work the Almaz-1 was deorbited on October 17, 1992 over the Pacific Ocean.

• Almaz-2 (Almaz-1V) - Not flown. A new radar which would have provided a resolution of 5 to 7 meters. In addition, an optical-electronic payload on the station would be capable of producing imagery with a resolution 2.5 - 4 meters.

Almaz was promoted by Vladimir Chelomei as a response to the USAF's MOL project. In its original configuration, Almaz and MOL were very similar.

The station was launched on a Proton rocket with a two-man crew who would return to earth in a descent capsule after a month of military observation. Following the delays to the Soyuz project, Almaz also assumed the role of intercepting military satellites. Once launched Almaz would be resupplied by the TKS spacecraft that also used Chelomei's Proton booster.

In addition to reconnaissance equipment, the Almaz had an on-board cannon derived from the 23mm Nudelmann aircraft cannon (other sources say it was a Nudelmann NR-30 30mm gun). Salyut 3 conducted a successful test firing on a target satellite. OPS-4 featured two unguided missiles instead of the aircraft cannon of previous stations.

Following the cancellation of the manned Almaz program, leftover Almaz spaceframes flew a decade later as unmanned radar satellites. The TKS spacecraft formed the basis of modules attached to the Mir space station and components of the International Space Station.

Currently, the private spaceflight company Excalibur Almaz plans to launch modernized Almaz space stations, and service them with space capsules derived from the TKS spacecraft system.

• Merkur (spacecraft)
• TKS Spacecraft

• http://www.russianspaceweb.com/almaz_ops4.html

• The Almaz Space Station Program
• http://www.russianspaceweb.com/almaz.html

v • d • e  Soviet (to 1991) and Russian government manned space programs

Active: Soyuz | ISS (joint)

In Development: Kliper

Past: Vostok | Voskhod | Salyut | Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (joint) | Mir

Cancelled: Zond (lunar Soyuz 7K-L1) | N1-L3 | Spiral | Almaz (incorporated into Salyut program) / TKS spacecraft | Energia / Buran

Salyut Program
Salyut 1 | Salyut 4 | Salyut 6 | Salyut 7
Almaz Program
Salyut 2 | Salyut 3 | Salyut 5