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r The
experts in space and rocketry field as well as
ones interested in the Russian cosmonautics know
quite a well The Military Aspects of the Soviet
Cosmonautics book by Maxim Tarasenko published in
1992. This book still is an unique independent
Russian research in the military space programs'
field. For the first time a number of the
political, managerial and technical issues were
covered that affected the development of the
national military space programs. The book
triggered the huge response. The Western analysts
were discussing the book's materials for years,
while we could not even look at the various
magazines involved in the discussion.In 1992 no one in Russia was courageous
enough to fund The Military Aspects printing. As
a result, the book was published on the author's
own account and the circulation was clearly
insufficient. Now the book is a rarity, and a
number of experts call for the second edition.
r As
the time goes, the political situation is
changing. A lot of previously classified
materials are appearing in the open information
sources. The author have collected and analyzed
the huge volumes of the information connected
with the Russian space program history. As a
result, the new research book in the military
space area should be significantly deeper and
more precious than The Military Aspects. Thus, in
1995 Maxim Tarasenko decided do not publish the
second edition of the book.
Instead, as a result of the
author's many years efforts, The Russian Military
Space Activities book manuscript was practically
finished early in 1999. This new book was
prepared in the close collaboration with Vladimir
Agapov systematically describing the evolution of
the national space programs and military/double
purpose space systems.
r The
special attention was given to the space
segments, i.e. the satellite constellation in the
near-Earth orbits. The manuscript contains the
space systems' functional classification and
discusses the space infrastructure and
military/double purpose satellite systems. Also,
the general sequence of the military space
programs' development and USSR/CIS/Russia space
policy issues are considered.
The manuscript's first part
discusses the general issues of the military
usage of outer space, including:
- USSR/Russia space activity
evolution and management from the
beginning of the national rocket program
in 1946 through 1999;
- Main military tasks that
could be accomplished by the space means,
including the corresponding technical
requirements and the international legal
issues;
- Options for the
independent identification of the
spacecraft tasks based on the results of
the objective external observations;
- Overview of the ground
infrastructure supporting the space
launches and orbiting spacecraft control;
- Evolution, technical and
operational data of the USSR/Russian
launch vehicles.
The second part discusses the
particular space complexes. Each chapter deals
with the systems resolving the specific task,
including the military communications,
navigation, the combat space systems, early
warning systems, etc. The complexes' description
is followed by the comprehensive launch histories
and the systems' usage statistics.
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