The Three-Barreled Soviet Astronaut Gun – The TP-82

The Soviets built a gun to send their astronauts into space with. An ultimate survival weapon; able to withstand re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere and still operate.

The Soviets were just sending out their astronauts with their 9mm Makarov. One of their men didn’t find the prospect of being stranded in Siberia with just a 9mm. What if he couldn’t get to any cities within a day? Worse, what if he could get back home, but he wouldn’t because of a pack of wolves?

So they created this.

The TP-82.
It was collectively known as SONAZ (Russian: СОНАЗ, Стрелковое Оружие Носимого Аварийного Запаса, Strelkovoye Oruzhie Nosimogo Avariynogo Zapasa “Small Arms of Portable Survival Kit”) alongside it’s ammo.

And the more you read about these guns, the more interested you become. Let me tell you about this one’s amazing features.

You can see the three barrels, two shotgun barrels on top alongside a smaller rifled barrel on the bottom. It was meant to shoot 40 gauge shells as well as AK ammo. That means this beast could scare away just about any predator, or bring down any prey. Scary stuff to be on the other end of, but damn doesn’t it make you want one?

The versatility is hard to match here. Especially considering one extra thing…

The removable stock also houses a machete! Complete with a canvas sheath!

That’d make this the ultimate survival/hunting weapon, if only it had a slightly longer barrel.

From 1986 to 2006 the Soviets and Russians both used this amazing piece of engineering on their space missions!

Not only that… If you look into the history of this thing, you’ll find that NASA astronauts also trained with it. They found it effective and accurate up to about 30 yards. Not a bad range on this pistol/rifle/shotgun hybrid…

Because of all of these features, I’ve heard tell of private flights into space that carried this gun on board. I’ll let you find where on the internet I found that information. I’ll give you a hint; I do real research. I don’t use Google.

Among all of these features, another amazing lifesaving one was added: the firearm is able to fire visible distress signals, using a special ammunition, as to get the cosmonauts home! Now isn’t that something? So many life-saving features on this thing…

You could defend yourself from a bear, skin it, cut the wood to cook it, and butcher it all with the same soviet-made tool! They had some great ideas… not too many though. When it came to firearms engineering though… With the AK, the many AK pistol variants, and so many more including this firearm and others that we’ll cover on the blog later this week, no one can deny.

These guns haven’t seen the darkness of space on an official Russian mission since 2006. The Russian government replaced the TP-82 with the Makarov 9mm on the 12th of October, 2007. The same pistol that cosmonauts had concerns with 20 years prior. The same pistol that they didn’t feel could protect them from Siberian wildlife.

However, as the years have progressed, Siberia has become less and less of a wilderness, more and more tamed, and I suppose the 9mm is enough nowadays.

Also the ammunition that it uses corroded away.

Thanks for reading, that’s all folks!