Istrebitel Sputnikov, or IS (russian: Истребитель спутников, ИС, meaning "destroyer of satellites"Not to be confounded with "sputnik-istrebitel" ("спутник-истребитель"), "fighter satellite".), was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

anti-satellite weapon Anti-satellite weapons (ASAT) are space weapons designed to incapacitate or destroy satellites for strategic or tactical purposes. Several nations possess operational ASAT systems. Although no ASAT system has been utilised in warfare, a few ...

s programme which led to the deployment of the IS-A or I2P system during the 1970s and 1980s. IS satellites were originally intended to launch on

UR-200 The UR-200 was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by Vladimir Chelomey's OKB-52 in the Soviet Union. It was known during the Cold War by the NATO reporting name SS-10 '' Scrag'' and internally by the GRAU index 8K81. The desi ...

rockets, but following the cancellation of the UR-200, the Polyot,

Tsyklon-2A The Tsyklon (Циклон, " Cyclone", also known as Tsiklon), GRAU index 11K67, was a Soviet-designed expendable launch system, primarily used to put Cosmos satellites into low Earth orbit. It is based on the R-36 intercontinental ballistic m ...

and

Tsyklon-2 The Tsyklon-2 (Cyclone-2), also known as Tsiklon-2 and Tsyklon-M (known as SL-11 by the United States DoD), GRAU index 11K69, was a Soviet, later Ukrainian, orbital carrier rocket used from the 1960s to the late 2000s. The rocket had 106 launch ...

rockets were used instead. The first test flights of the IS spacecraft used the I1P configuration, and served to demonstrate the propulsion and control systems of the spacecraft. Both were launched by Polyot rockets, and were designated

Polyot 1 Polyot is a transliteration of the Russian term Полёт (meaning Flight) and can be transliterated as Polyot, Poljot or Polet. Polyot can refer to the following: *Polet Airlines, an airline based in Voronezh, Russia *Poljot, a brand of watches f ...

and

Polyot 2 Polyot is a transliteration of the Russian term Полёт (meaning Flight) and can be transliterated as Polyot, Poljot or Polet. Polyot can refer to the following: *Polet Airlines, an airline based in Voronezh, Russia *Poljot, a brand of watches f ...

. They were launched on 1 November 1963 and 12 April 1964 respectively. Following this, IS-A or I2P interceptors and IS-P or I2M targets were launched. Only four IS-P targets were launched before the type was replaced by the cheaper DS-P1-M satellite, launched as part of the

Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik Dnepropetrovsk Sputnik (russian: Днепропетровский Спутник; ua, Дніпропетровський супутник), also known as DS, was a series of satellites launched by the Soviet Union between 1961 and 1982. DS satel ...

programme. Later IS-A tests intercepted DS-P1-M satellites, or the

Lira Lira is the name of several currency units. It is the current currency of Turkey and also the local name of the currencies of Lebanon and of Syria. It is also the name of several former currencies, including those of Italy, Malta and Israe ...

satellites that succeeded them.

References

{{weapons-stub Space weapons Soviet military spacecraft 1963 in spaceflight 1982 in spaceflight Abandoned military projects of the Soviet Union

See also

References