Salyut-8

Constructed by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Soviet Salyut-8 was the very first continuously inhabited space station above Terra.[1]

History[edit]

The eighth and last in the Salyut series of orbital stations with the goal now permanent human residency in space, Salyut-8 was the site of the very first serious fight in space in 1994. While unarmed and ultimately non-lethal, this fight reportedly occurred due to violent political differences between a cosmonaut from the Afghan SSR and his fellow crewmates.[1]

That very same year engineers from the United States of America and Japan completed blueprints for a jointly developed space-based missile defense system, at the heart of which was the massive manned Crippen Station. While the ever expanding Crippen Station not considered even initially completed until over a decade later in 2005, Salyut-8 was soon dwarfed by its Western contemporary.[1] [2]

Notes[edit]

  • Representing a divergence from real world history which only reached Seven Salyut stations, by being the eighth Soviet station with the mention goal of continual habitation, as well playing host to a (non-violent) visit from an Afghan cosmonaut, may imply it is the BattleTech universe's counterpart to the real-world Mir space station.

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Strategic Operations, p. 244: "Aerospace Operations - Combat"
  2. DropShips and JumpShips, p. 5 "Space Travel in the Successor States - Crippen Station"

Bibliography[edit]