FL: Space Station Crew Can Access Gun (with survey to hit)

[dismal]

http://www.wesh.com/news/15298911/detail.html

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Astronauts aboard the International Space Station apparently have access to a gun.

Russian Cosmonauts carry a gun on their Soyuz space capsule, which is attached to the space station.

Every spacecraft carries survival gear for crash landings, and the Russian Soyuz has a kit that includes the gun.

A photo of a space tourist using one version of the weapon is posted on his Web site.

But although the gun has been there for as long as the space station has been in orbit, its existence is kept quiet. NASA and Russian officials won't talk publicly about it.

Former NASA engineer Jim Oberg, who is an author and journalist, wrote about the gun on his Web site. He said the gun has no place in an environment where people are under such high stress.

"There have been cases of severe psychological strain on people in space, strain that they have taken out -- that their shipmates worried about the ultimate actions," Oberg said.

Experts said the idea of an astronaut losing control was unthinkable until one year ago, when Lisa Nowak shattered the myth.

Her own attorney said she was insane when arrested for hunting down another woman, and prosecutors said she was heavily armed.

Nowak had flown in space just seven months earlier.

Oberg knows an astronaut bent on orbital manslaughter could simply throw any number of switches to do the job, but he said the crews would be safer if the gun was locked up or left on Earth.

The gun is located in a survival kit between some seats aboard the Soyuz spacecraft. All the crewmembers know about it, and U.S. astronauts who fly aboard the Soyuz are trained to use it.

[justaguy]

Her own attorney said she was insane when arrested for hunting down another woman, and prosecutors said she was heavily armed.

Wasn’t it just a BB gun and a knife?

[GregM]

Wonder what else that survival kit contains ... ?

One hundred dollars in rubles, one hundred dollars in gold, nine packs of chewing gun, one issue prophylactics, three lipsticks, three pairs of nylon stockings ...

[justaguy]

Wonder what else that survival kit contains ... ?

One hundred dollars in rubles, one hundred dollars in gold, nine packs of chewing gun, one issue prophylactics, three lipsticks, three pairs of nylon stockings ...

And Tang.

[DeanC]

Wonder what else that survival kit contains ... ?

One hundred dollars in rubles, one hundred dollars in gold, nine packs of chewing gun, one issue prophylactics, three lipsticks, three pairs of nylon stockings ...

shoot, a fellah could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff....

(Watch his lips when he says that. He actually says "Dallas". The location was changed and over-dubbed because of the Kennedy assassination.)

[Ironbear]

And Tang.

Wait until I get my sunglasses on here. Ok. Look at the light....

[Pat Cannon]

Her own attorney said she was insane when arrested for hunting down another woman, and prosecutors said she was heavily armed.

Wasn’t it just a BB gun and a knife?

She did have a heavy steel mallet as well, but yeah, she was not "heavily armed" in the sense an educated person would use the term.

[hammAR]

one issue prophylactics, three lipsticks, three pairs of nylon stockings ...

Yea, I could see where someone could get shot................must be airforce............

[BRIT_in_the_weeds]

Wouldn't the survival kit burn up in the event of a SHTF or is it made of "black box" material? We know the astronauts are not!

[ree]

Wouldn't the survival kit burn up in the event of a SHTF or is it made of "black box" material? We know the astronauts are not!

A prophylactic made of black box material? Youch.

[hammAR]

Youch.