"The Black Russians  and the Black Horses"

Chapter One Polyus .

1) The Polyus spacecraft, also known as Polus, Skif-DM, or 17F19DM, was a prototype orbital weapons platform designed to defend against anti-satellite weapons with recoilless cannon.

2) It was also equipped with a sensor blinding laser to confuse approaching weapons and could launch test targets to validate the fire control system.

3) It had the capability of deploying  Nuclear mines  through a special cannon.

4) Black matte painting for camouflage, probable stealth radar observing properties.

5) The laser device was not found on board, however. It had been replaced by a dummy of identical weight.

6) TASS originally reported that a 'mock-up' had been sent up by Energia (This would explain why the 60 ton Laser module was never recovered)

7) No member of the Reagan or Bush administrations ever admitted or revealed publicly any knowledge of Polyus. 

8) The US Navy made no statements about any attempts to investigate the wreckage of Polyus, which lies on the floor of the South Pacific.
 

It would seem that Polyus is the Soviet response to the project "Star Wars" launched by the American president Reagan. It was to be in fact a laser space combat station. Finally, we know very few things about this apparatus and its real use. Officially it was intended to make scientific experiments in upper atmosphere." 
 - by Vassili Petrovitch

Polyus was launched May 15, 1987, as part of the first flight of the Energia system.

According to Yuri Kornilov, Chief Designer of the Salyut Design Bureau, Mikhail Gorbachev shortly before Polyus' launch visited the Baikonur Cosmodrome and expressly forbid the on-orbit testing of its capabilities. Kornilov claims that Gorbachev was worried that it would be possible for the west to view this activity as an attempt to create a weapon in space and that such an attempt would compromise the country's leaderships' statements on the USSR’s peaceful intent. [1]

For technical reasons, the payload was launched upside down. It was designed to separate from the Energia, rotate 180 degrees, then complete its boost to orbit. The Energia functioned perfectly, but after disconnecting from Energia, the Polyus spun a full 360 degrees instead of the planned 180 degrees. When the rocket fired, it slowed and fell into the south Pacific ocean.

Parts of the Polyus project hardware were re-used in Kvant-2, Kristall, Spektr and Priroda Mir modules, as well as in ISS Zarya FGB.

Defensive weapons

    * Radar and optical sighting system guided ASAT defensive canon.
    * Barium cloud generation system, to confuse enemy ASAT satellites.
    * Black matte painting for camouflage, probable stealth radar observing properties.
    * Communications possible through usage of laser communication link, allowing operation in radio silence.

Offensive weapons

    * Nuclear mines deployed through a special cannon.

 - SOURCE - Wikipedia

Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)

March 15, 1987 Russian Polyus Info Page Buran.Ru Cargo English Buran-Energia.com/Polyus

"High Frontier" by General Daniel O.Graham (1983)

So according to Newt Gingrich... in 1983 the Russians were ahead of us in the High Frontier (Space)

http://k26.com/buran/Info/Polyus/polyus-energia.html

No member of the Reagan or Bush administrations ever admitted or revealed publicly any knowledge of Polyus. The US Navy made no statements about any attempts to investigate the wreckage of Polyus, which lies on the floor of the South Pacific.

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/polyus.htm

"Preventing the Weaponization of Space" that was printed in Nexus magazine in November, 2004.  In it we find an "Enemies List" that the U.S. government uses to keep the media and public in support of the Pentagon Budget.  The list, given to Carol Rosin by her colleague the famous German rocket scientist Dr Wernher von Braun, has the following sequenced manufactured threats.  Here we see:

America's 'Enemies List' to Sustain War Mode and Pentagon Budgets

1 - Soviet Union

2 - Terrorists

3 - Asteroids

4 - Extraterrestrials
 

Dr von Braun said none of these threats are hostile and all a lie.  He said all of this must be stopped and worked with Carol Rosin up until the time of his death by cancer in Alexandria, Virginia in 1977 to prevent the weaponization of space, just as President Eisenhower had warned about the threat of the military-industrial-corporate-academic complex to America's future in the early 50s.

On June 16, 1977, Wernher von Braun died in Alexandria, Virginia at the age of 65. He was buried at the Ivy Hill Cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia

- by Vassili Petrovitch

Battle Station Polyus.

DefenseTech reported, some time ago, on the old USSR’s Space Battle Station (or, communist Russia’s answer to Reagan’s star wars program). More pictures are in a forum at Militaryphotos.net.

Called Polyus, it was ridiculously huge — as with all things Russian. Sadly, (from a purely scientific perspective) DefenseTech reports “it couldn’t get itself into a working orbit, probably because of ‘a faulty inertial guidance sensor,’ according to the Encyclopedia Astronautica.”

Who can tell what its capabilities were, but it’s interesting that the Soviet space weapons system appeared closer to completion than the US’s system. Of course, the fact that the Soviets were not able to build a new one and complete the program after the loss of the first one sort of confirms what everybody was saying about the communist economy all along (well, through the 1990s, after it had already become abundantly clear). Of course, it’s possible that there are active Russian weapons in space now that we don’t know about, but that’s what movies are for.

SOURCE:
 

Moreover other parts of Polyus were re-used, the nose cone was used for the apparatuses "Quantum - 2", "Crystal", "Spectrum" and "Nature", as well as the first element of the international space station ISS which was the electric block FGB "Paddle"."

- by Vassili Petrovitch