Why did Soviet astronauts often carry guns into space?

April 12, 1961 became an important milestone in world history when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to make a historic flight into space. After that, Russian astronauts continued to carry out new missions and set impressive records.

During space flights, Soviet astronauts often brought along a number of things such as food, medicine, family photos, favorite books. One special thing that astronauts brought along that made many people curious was a gun .

Picture 1 of Why did Soviet astronauts often carry guns into space?
Guns are special items brought into space by Soviet cosmonauts.

The use of explosive or projectile weapons is not recommended by experts in a zero gravity environment. However, that does not mean that such weapons are not viable in space.

The initiator of the idea of carrying a gun into space and also one of the participants in the development program was cosmonaut Alexei Leonov - the first person to walk in space. Cosmonaut Leonov was stuck in a forest when the ship landed.

From then on, astronauts were equipped with guns in their emergency spacesuits to protect them from wild animals such as bears in case their spacecraft landed in remote areas such as Siberia.

The TP-82's three guns - two on top, one on the bottom - were specially developed for the Soyuz program. One gun was for firing projectiles, one for firing cartridges, and the remaining position was for flash.

Before 2006, astronauts always carried TP-82 on space missions. TP-82 was designed with 3 barrels: one for regular bullets, one for shotgun shells and one for flares.

During space missions, the gun will be kept by astronauts in a metal box.

If everything goes according to plan and the astronaut lands safely, the box containing the gun will never be opened . At the end of the mission, the guns brought into space are often given to the astronaut as souvenirs.

By mid-2006, authorities and experts found the TP-82 too cumbersome, so they replaced it with a more compact weapon, the Makarov , a semi-automatic pistol chambered for 9mm bullets.