Rods from god, but somehow less credible

Reproduced here for easier amusement:

1/ Russia’s space agency Roskosmos is reportedly evaluating options for using space rockets to drop aerial bombs on Ukraine from orbit. The proposal is likely to face serious technical difficulties, not least the risk of bombs burning up from the heat of atmospheric reentry.

2/ The Russian BRIEF Telegram channel reports that former Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin has been discussing the proposal with Dmitry Baranov, director general of the Progress Rocket Space Centre, before taking it to Vladimir Putin last week.

Rogozin reportedly envisages using Russia’s Vostochny and Plesetsk cosmodromes to launch bomb-carrying rockets into space to drop “heavy FABs” (presumably the FAB-500 500-kilogram (1,100 lb) general purpose air-dropped bomb) on “NATO equipment” in Ukraine.

3/ Baranov, understandably, has questions. According to BRIEF, he objected that the bombs would overheat on the way down. “It’s travelling at over 6 kilometres per second. That’s practically space speed. It’s like the Soyuz TMA [spacecraft] coming back. It’s the same shit.”

4/ According to Baranov, rockets launched from Vostochny can carry 7.5 tons, while launches from Plesetsk can carry 10 tons, minus a ton in each case for “insurance”. He is said to envisage a 6-9 month timeframe for adapting the rockets into bombers, though he seems to be uncertain about how this can be done. Rogozin reportedly envisages adapting “the toys of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering” to shield the FABs from reentry heat.

5/ BRIEF reports that Rogozin planned to send a paper to Anton Vaino, Putin’s chief of staff, who is said to be interested and intending to “report to the chief on this matter”. It’s not known what Putin himself thinks of the idea