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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

1984 laser "attack" on the space shuttle

Joined
Mar 21, 2010
Messages
9
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I was looking around online and stumbled across this interesting story:

Laser Beam Array Terra 3

Terra-3 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

On October 10, 1984, the Terra-3 facility deliberately directed a low-energy laser beam at the US Space Shuttle Challenger (OV-99). This caused some of the on-board equipment to malfunction, as well as causing discomfort and temporary blindness to crew members. This action led to a US diplomatic protest.

Sort of has me wondering what sort of power and mrad would be needed for a laser to even be visible from low earth orbit ~200km. Its too bad the mission control tapes concerning this aren't available.
 





Joined
Oct 24, 2009
Messages
1,173
Points
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Well, FAIL on the Russians, for not developing any real laser weapons and FAIL on the US for trying to say their sad little laser blinded us... This was back when we were looking for a reason to nuke each other...
 




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