There's a gun on the ISS... fact.

Spotted this a short while ago, it was news to me.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station apparently have access to a gun. Russian Cosmonauts carry a gun on their Soyuz space capsule, which is attached to the space station. Every spacecraft carries survival gear for crash landings, and the Russian Soyuz has a kit that includes the gun. A photo of a space tourist using one version of the weapon is posted on his Web site.

But although the gun has been there for as long as the space station has been in orbit, its existence is kept quiet. NASA and Russian officials won't talk publicly about it.

Former NASA engineer Jim Oberg, who is an author and journalist, wrote about the gun on his Web site. He said the gun has no place in an environment where people are under such high stress.

"There have been cases of severe psychological strain on people in space, strain that they have taken out -- that their shipmates worried about the ultimate actions," Oberg said.

Experts said the idea of an astronaut losing control was unthinkable until one year ago, when Lisa Nowak shattered the myth.

Her own attorney said she was insane when arrested for hunting down another woman, and prosecutors said she was heavily armed.

Nowak had flown in space just seven months earlier.

Oberg knows an astronaut bent on orbital manslaughter could simply throw any number of switches to do the job, but he said the crews would be safer if the gun was locked up or left on Earth.

The gun is located in a survival kit between some seats aboard the Soyuz spacecraft. All the crewmembers know about it, and U.S. astronauts who fly aboard the Soyuz are trained to use it.

The Apollo astronauts were said to have had cyanide capsules ready in case they got stuck on the moon.
Nasa denies this though.

Some accused Gus Grissom of panicking when his capsule hit the water,causing the loss of the capsule and very nearly the helicopter crew who tried to stop it from sinking.

It's only a matter of time before somebody up there "flips" no doubt.

We can only presume that the ammunition is not armour piercing :shock:

I mean ending it all - (goodbye cruel solar system) - would in effect doom everyone else on the craft? - besides it would not be good start if they were scanned in the process of "first Contact"

final thought: ya can't get a nail file past airport security, but ya can get a gun into a spacecraft.....

A single bullet hole would not "down" the ISS.
Ever heard of little Hans the Dutch boy who put his finger in the Dyke and saved all of Holland?

It would if it hit the Coffee Machine

Declan

sounds like a throwback to the cold war with a fear of landing behind an enemies border