Skif

After the failed launch of the Skif-DM/Polyus payload by Energiya 6SL on 15 May 1987 (see Chapter 6), KB Salyut continued work on the Skif project, albeit at a slow pace. Original plans to launch Skif-D1 (without a laser payload) and Skif-D2 (with a laser payload) in 1987 and 1988 soon turned out to be unattainable. Several major components of Skif-D1 (both for the FSB and the Payload Module) were finished at the Khrunichev factory by early 1987, but serious problems with the development of the vehicle’s acquisition, tracking, and pointing system delayed the final assembly of the spacecraft. That, combined with the declining support from the Gorbachov administration for Star Wars programs, led to the suspension of all Skif-related work at KB Salyut and the Khrunichev factory in September 1987.

While Skif was supposed to use laser-type weapons to destroy low-orbiting satellites, KB Salyut concurrently also developed the Kaskad system, armed with conventional missiles to destroy satellites in medium and geostationary orbits. Vir­

tually nothing has been revealed about this project, but it was almost certainly also supposed to be launched by Energiya [59].