--- In spaceprojects@yahoogroups.com, vic_stathopoulos <no_reply@...>
wrote:
>
> Happy New Year. One page I have been planning to do for years is on
> the Milky Way and at long last I have made it.
>
> There is some interesting info on the page and it makes you wonder
> will Humans ever be able to travel across the Milky Way. What are
> you thoughts on future space travel?
>
> The Milky Way Galaxy is about 2000 light years thick (tall) but
> 100,000 light years across. It contains an estimated 100,000
million
> stars. Thats alot of stars.
>
> http://www.aerospaceguide.net/astronomy/milkyway.html
>
> I have also done a page on Epoxi.Epoxi is a low cost mission
derived
> by the recycling of the Deep Impact spacecraft which successfully
> guided an impactor into comet Tempel 1 in July 2005.
>
> http://www.aerospaceguide.net/solar_system/epoxi.html
>
> I have added one space book to the new releases page and if you are
> a space station history fan, I believe you will love it. Its called
> Salyut - The First Space Station: Triumph and Tragedy.
>
> The book gives you an insight into the people involved in the
> development of the Salyut space station and the crews assigned to
> operate it. It describes the rotation between the crews, analyses
> the decision to send the back-up crew on Soyuz 11 and recounts the
> intrigues and difficult relationships between all the personalities
> involved - politicians, CKBEM managers, designers, generals and
> cosmonauts. Biographies of the Soyuz 11 cosmonauts are published
for
> the first time in English and the longest manned space mission of
> the time is described before Grujica Ivanovich gives a unique
> summary of the most tragic day in the Soviet/Russian manned space
> program. An investigation into the cause of the tragic deaths of
the
> Soyuz 11 cosmonauts precedes a description of the post-Salyut era,
> showing how the legacy of the first space station has survived for
> decades.
>
> Vic
>

Hi Vic:

As far as I know, there are several Salyut Space Staions in storage
at Baikonur. There is also one on display outside of the Hotel Kosmos
in Moscow. I'm a science fiction author with my first novel The Hive,
due out next month, but my second book, Red Moon, is at my
publisher's now. In Red Moon, the Chinese have taken advantage of
economic chaos in the West and have established a militerized space
program and moon base to extract vital resources as well as control
access to space by other nations. In a crash program using off the
self equipment, a US, EU, Russian mission is put together to reach
the Moon and establish a counter claim to these resources but the
Chinese will stop at nothing to derail the mission. The Salyut is the
core of the mission ship. Here is a part from the new book:

Chris
www.freewebs.com/chrisbfla

John McGovern and Natasha Polyakova had just finished their breakfast
and were heading over to the Soyuz simulator when they ran into RSA
Director Victor Zhdanov. The color had drained from his face. He was
nearly in shock and shaking. Natasha twice asked what had happened
and then, his voice coming in short gulps, his eyes refusing to focus
on either Natasha or McGovern, Zhdanov replied,
"They're gone! The three Salyuts in storage are gone. There
has been a massive explosion at the launch center. We no longer have
any means of reaching the Moon."
Jack Griffin had just gotten of the elevator with astronaut
Bill Curtis when he spotted RSA Director Zhdanov along with John and
Natasha. All three looked as if they were in shock
"Hey, what's going on…somebody die or something?"
John McGovern turned to the Canadian and answered, "Not
somebody, some thing. The mission's dead. The Salyuts are gone. An
explosion at the storage area in Kazakhstan destroyed the building
they were in along with everything inside of it."
Tom Garcia and LaCasse were the next one's down from their
dormitory floor, both hungry and eager for breakfast. However the
terrible news they were delivered killed their appetites.
Tom Garcia, sitting in a chair, his elbows braced on his
knees, his hands cupping his face, was a man in despair.
"I can't believe it! I can't believe we've come this far,
this fast only to have this happen? How?"
Natasha spoke with a dejected voice, "Another accident it
seems. This time at Baikonur. Somehow a fuel truck drove up to the
building that the three Salyuts were stored in and exploded. Although
I am certain this was no accident"
Director Zhdanov shaking his head finished his
conversation and hung up the telephone.
"Cosmonaut Polyakova is correct. The body of the real
driver of the fuel truck was found just outside of Zhezkazgan, about
seventy kilometers from Baikonur. This was some kind of suicide
attack. The gate guards are being questioned but apparently the
driver had what appeared to be genuine military paperwork signed by
the commander of the strategic rocket forces himself. This was no
ordinary terrorist attack. This was a very well planned operation by
people who knew exactly where to hit us and how to stop us from
reaching the Moon."
By now many in the engineering and flight simulation
departments, looking for the Alliance crew, had wandered into the
hallway leading to the cafeteria. Anton Kovalchuk, the usually
affable simulator technician, stood next to Natasha, body bent in a
posture of defeat. John McGovern looked about to boil over with
rage. Finally he could no longer hold it in.
"Son of a bitch! If you ever catch the bastards who were
behind this you ought to lop off their heads and put them on display!"
Suddenly Natasha eyes went wide and she put her hand to her
mouth, not daring to hope what she just realized might be true. "John…
did you say display?
Oh my God...Anton, your keys! Your keys to your car!
Please…give them to me and quickly!"
"Alright Natasha but please don't damage it, I just
bought it."
"Anton, if I can pilot a Soyuz, I can certainly drive
your car…John, poshlee… quick, quick, let's go and pray, pray the
swine that destroyed the Salyuts do not realize the error they have
made!"
McGovern was running along with Natasha into the parking
lot of Star City. They jumped into Anton's new Skoda sport coupe and
tore out of the exit and onto the main Moscow ring road.
"Hey Natasha! What the hell is going on? Where are we
going?
"To the Hotel Kosmos. We'll be there in just a few
minutes but we must hurry!
Natasha was pushing the one point five liter coupe for
all it was worth, screeching through traffic and weaving from lane to
lane. Somehow they managed to escape the notice of the Moscow
traffic police.
She downshifted the car and sped down Mira Prospect,
past the huge "U" shaped Hotel Kosmos. As she rounded the corner just
opposite the hotel, Natasha jammed on the brakes and pulled to the
curb.
"Natasha! Is that what I think it is? I mean is it real
or just a model?"
Natasha at last daring to hope that the mission had not
been terminated by their enemies replied, "No, it's real. My father
used to take me here as a small child to look at it and play beside
it. I liked to pretend I was a cosmonaut and I was outside, in space
looking at my ship. It's real all right! Those stupid bastards never
realized it was here. John, I must call Victor Zhdanov and tell him
to send the army. We need soldiers to protect it."
While Natasha placed her call to the RSA director, John
McGovern just stood on the side walk gazing up at it. An actual
Salyut space station with a Soyuz mounted to it, on display next to
the Hotel Kosmos. Somehow, if this craft had not seen too much
damage from sitting outdoors for so many years, then maybe, just
maybe, the mission could be salvaged.
About fifteen minutes after Natasha placed the call to
the director, the first truckload of soldiers with Kalashnikovs
arrived at the display. The people behind the destruction of the
Salyuts in Kazakhstan had failed to stop McGovern's and Natasha's
mission, and even if they had realized one more of the space stations
was still in existence, they would never be able to get near it now
with armed troops guarding the Salyut.
By late afternoon, the sun, as if echoing the mood of those
inspecting and readying the Salyut to be moved, shone down
brilliantly from a deep blue sky. The crew of the Alliance mission
was walking around along with an engineering team, as well as RSA
Director Zhdanov and Dmitry Polyakov, Natasha's father. The entire
block around the Salyut including Mira Prospect was cordoned off by
the military with a flat bed truck waiting to receive the Salyut. The
space station was gently being lowered by a crane onto a series of
padded supports.
John McGovern had his arms crossed watching the operation
when he felt someone step up beside him.
Dmitry Polyakov turned to McGovern. "They will be taking
the Salyut from here to the Korolev-Energia space facility for
testing and reconditioning. If everything is satisfactory, they will
complete all upgrades and fly it to Baikonur for launching."
McGovern nodded his head in agreement.
"Your daughter is a very quick thinker. While just about
everyone at the training facility was crying in their coffee, she
remembered this place. She said you used to take her here as a child
and she would pretend she was in outer space."
Polyakov laughed, "Ah, yes, when Natasha was only seven or
eight, her mother and I would stop here sometimes. She liked this
place better than the playgrounds near our home. Unbelievable, that
if this craft is capable of space flight, she will actually travel to
the Moon in it."