alternatehistory.com
Soviets in space (16)
“...intelligence analyst Peter N. James’s none-too-subtly titled book Soviet Conquest From Space offers a sweeping portrait of a “total” Soviet space effort centered on the construction of a space shuttle fleet; second fleet of orbit-to-orbit spacecraft for servicing them, or space tugs; and not one, but a network of orbiting space stations, some capable of hosting twenty crewmembers at a time.
"The Soviets believe that the creation of a network of space stations is their highway into outer space" James says. "This massive, robust infrastructure would enable the Soviet Union to conduct space operations on a routine basis, just as military aircraft are currently used in surveillance, reconnaissance, tactical or strategic missions.”
James predicts that by the early 1980s "orbital space will be saturated by practically every conceivable Soviet satellite, from passive to aggressive space systems, from maneuverable spaceships which can seek and destroy orbiting U.S. satellites, to orbital weapons systems which can destroy terrestrial targets as well"
...
Only much later was it understood that during his private discussions with Soviets officials, Peter James clearly picked up some shreds of information on MiG's Spiral. One of the specialists James talkeld to at the 1969 IAF congress in Argentina was Gennadiy Dementyev. That person was interesting in many ways.
First, he was the son of the Minister of the Aviation Industry, Peter V. Dementyev. Born in 1907, from March 1946 he was Deputy Minister of Aviation Industry of the USSR. In March 1953 the Ministry became the Ministry of Defense Industry and Dementyev has lost his post. After the arrest of Beria Peter Dementiyev became Minister of Aviation Industry of the USSR. He led the industry until his death in May 1977 - almost 34 years. As for his son, he had first worked at the Moscow aviation institute but in 1967 he was named Lozino Lozinskiy deputy for the Spiral Program at Mikoyan's space branch in Dubna.
So Peter Dementiyev son Gennadiy found himself in touch with Peter N. James and through him, James speculated on the misterious Soviet space plane.
What James couldn't guess was that the Spiral project had never been the Soviet answer to the cancelled American shuttle. Spiral had started long before, in 1965, and ten years later was stalled because of his dual nature half-rocket and half-aircraft. The two branches – led by Peter Dementiyev and Serguey Afanasyev - hated each other since 1960, when Khrushchev had sacrificed long range bombers to ICBMs, redirecting five aviation shops to the missile industry.
"The Soviets believe that the creation of a network of space stations is their highway into outer space" James says. "This massive, robust infrastructure would enable the Soviet Union to conduct space operations on a routine basis, just as military aircraft are currently used in surveillance, reconnaissance, tactical or strategic missions.”
James predicts that by the early 1980s "orbital space will be saturated by practically every conceivable Soviet satellite, from passive to aggressive space systems, from maneuverable spaceships which can seek and destroy orbiting U.S. satellites, to orbital weapons systems which can destroy terrestrial targets as well"
...
Only much later was it understood that during his private discussions with Soviets officials, Peter James clearly picked up some shreds of information on MiG's Spiral. One of the specialists James talkeld to at the 1969 IAF congress in Argentina was Gennadiy Dementyev. That person was interesting in many ways.
First, he was the son of the Minister of the Aviation Industry, Peter V. Dementyev. Born in 1907, from March 1946 he was Deputy Minister of Aviation Industry of the USSR. In March 1953 the Ministry became the Ministry of Defense Industry and Dementyev has lost his post. After the arrest of Beria Peter Dementiyev became Minister of Aviation Industry of the USSR. He led the industry until his death in May 1977 - almost 34 years. As for his son, he had first worked at the Moscow aviation institute but in 1967 he was named Lozino Lozinskiy deputy for the Spiral Program at Mikoyan's space branch in Dubna.
So Peter Dementiyev son Gennadiy found himself in touch with Peter N. James and through him, James speculated on the misterious Soviet space plane.
What James couldn't guess was that the Spiral project had never been the Soviet answer to the cancelled American shuttle. Spiral had started long before, in 1965, and ten years later was stalled because of his dual nature half-rocket and half-aircraft. The two branches – led by Peter Dementiyev and Serguey Afanasyev - hated each other since 1960, when Khrushchev had sacrificed long range bombers to ICBMs, redirecting five aviation shops to the missile industry.
- Archibald
- Word Count: 420