TP-82
TP-82 in Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineers and Signal Corps, Saint Petersburg
TypeCombination gun
Place of originSoviet Union
Service history
In service1986–2006
Used byCosmonauts
Production history
DesignerIgor Aleksandrovich Skrylev
Specifications
Mass2.4 kg (5.3 lb) (with the buttstock attached)
Cartridge12.5×70mm shotgun (over) and 5.45×39mm rifle (under)
Barrels3 (2 shotgun barrels and 1 rifle barrel)
Effective firing range200 m (220 yd)
Feed systemBreak-open
SightsIron sights

The TP-82 (Russian: ТП-82) is an out-of-service triple-barreled Soviet combination gun carried by cosmonauts on space missions. It was intended as a survival aid to be used after landings and before recovery in the Siberian wilderness.

Features

The TP-82 can be used for hunting, to defend against predators, and for creating visible and/or audible distress signals. The detachable buttstock also functions as a machete and is equipped with a canvas sheath.

The upper two side-by-side shotgun barrels use special 12.5×70mm ammunition (40 gauge), and the lower single rifled barrel uses 5.45×39mm ammunition developed for the AK-74 assault rifle. The TP-82 has a large lever on the left side of the receiver that opens the action, and a small grip safety under the trigger guard that resembles a secondary trigger. According to NASA astronauts, the gun is very accurate out to about 20–30 m (22–33 yd).[1]

History

The TP-82 was the result of cosmonaut Alexei Leonov's concerns after being stranded in the Siberian wilderness when his Voskhod capsule malfunctioned. He feared that the 9x18mm Makarov pistol that was provided in his survival kit would be ineffective against the Siberian wildlife, such as Eurasian brown bears and Eurasian wolves.[2]

TP-82s were carried regularly on Soviet and Russian space missions from 1986 to 2006.[3] They were part of the Soyuz Portable Emergency Survival Kit (Носимый аварийный запас, Nosimyi Avariynyi Zapas, NAZ).

In 2007, the media reported that the remaining ammunition for the TP-82 had become unusable and that a regular semi-automatic pistol would be used on future missions.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Oberg, James (2014-11-13). "How I Stopped Cosmonauts From Carrying Guns". IEEE Spectrum. Retrieved 2022-07-19.
  2. ↑ Simpson, James (2015-02-03). "Soviet Cosmonauts Carried a Shotgun Into Space". War Is Boring. Archived from the original on 2017-02-09. Retrieved 2016-12-14.
  3. ↑ Pike, Travis (2022, January 19). TP-82 cosmonaut survival pistol: Russia's Space Gun. Sandboxx. https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/tp-82-cosmonaut-survival-pistol-russias-space-gun/
  4. ↑ "TP-82: Russian space pistol / shotgun / carbine / flare gun no longer being carried into space". The Firearm Blog. 2007-10-13. Retrieved 2016-12-14.
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