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The Almaz ((ロシア語:Алмаз), "Diamond") program was a highly secretive Soviet military space station program, begun in the early 1960s. Three crewed military reconnaissance stations were launched between 1973 and 1976: Salyut 2, Salyut 3 and Salyut 5. To cover the military nature of the program the three launched Almaz stations were designated as civilian Salyut space stations. Salyut 2 failed shortly after achieving orbit, but Salyut 3 and Salyut 5 both conducted successful manned testing. Following Salyut 5, the Soviet Ministry of Defence judged in 1978 that the time consumed by station maintenance outweighed the benefits relative to automatic reconnaissance satellites. The space stations cores were known internally as OPS ((ロシア語:ОПС), GRAU index 11F71 and 11F71B), from "Orbital Piloted Station" ((ロシア語:Орбитальная Пилотируемая Станция)).〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.russianspaceweb.com/almaz_ops.html )〕 As part of the Almaz program several spacecraft for supportive roles were developed: The VA spacecraft, the Functional Cargo Block and the TKS spacecraft, which were to be used in several combinations.〔〔 The heritage of the Almaz program continues to this day with the ISS module Zarya being one example. ==Development== Almaz had been promoted by Vladimir Chelomei at the OKB-52 design bureau as a response to the US Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) project – MOL had been widely publicized in the US press in the early 1960s, which provided plenty of material for Chelomei to lobby for a Soviet response to this perceived US threat. The Almaz space station programme involved three major hardware components: * the Orbital Piloted Station (OPS, 11F71) module, forming the space station itself,〔 * the Functional Cargo Block (FGB, 11F77), intended as resupply craft for the stations,〔 and * the VA spacecraft (11F74, known in the West as the ''Merkur'' spacecraft), intended as launch and return vehicle for the crews,〔 and reusable for up to 10 flights. The OPS would have a maximum diameter of , a mass of roughly , and an internal habitable volume of .〔 Much like its MOL/Gemini counterpart, the initial Almaz APOS space station design called for the launch of an Almaz-OPS space station and a VA return capsule containing its initial three man crew, mated together as OPS/VA atop Chelomei's UR-500 Proton rocket.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.astronautix.com/craft/almzapos.htm )〕 As with MOL/Gemini, once in orbit the crew would access the lab through a hatch in the heat shield at the bottom of the VA capsule. After an extended stay of 30 to 60 days of military observation and photography the crew would return to Earth by way of a VA return vehicle.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.russianspaceweb.com/almaz_origin.html )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.astronautix.com/craft/tks.htm )〕 Unlike the American MOL design, the Almaz was designed to be recrewed and resupplied. For this the TKS resupply craft (11F72) was created, consisting of an FGB and a VA return craft carrying the crew, also launched together on a Proton rocket. At the station, one docking port would be available to receive the TKS craft once the previous crew had left the station in their VA capsule.〔 While the MOL was canceled in 1969, the Almaz program was integrated into the Salyut programme and resulted in three flown space stations, two of which were crewed successfully. As "man-rating" the VA spacecraft and the Proton rocket took longer, the first phase called for the launch of three Almaz stations without the VA spacecraft, with the crew instead launched separately by Soyuz rocket in a modified Soyuz spacecraft. Plans called for the first three Almaz stations to be visited by 3 two-month-long expeditions each. This was realized fully by two missions and partially by one; however, the initial intention of launching Almaz APOS and the TKS spacecraft together with its crew in VA spacecraft would never materialize during the program, and neither would the TKS craft play its intended role as resupply craft. The Almaz APOS design, without VA spacecraft, would evolve into the Almaz OPS station cores of the Salyut programme.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.russianspaceweb.com/almaz_development.html )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Almaz」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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