TP-82 Cosmonaut survival pistol

TP-82
TP-82
	TP-82 in Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineers and Signal Corps, Saint Petersburg
Type	Combination gun
Place of origin	Soviet Union
Service history
In service	1986–2007
Production history
Designer
Specifications
Mass	2.4 kg (with stock)
Cartridge	5.45×39mm (below) and 12.5×70 shotgun shells (above)
Barrels	3
Effective firing range	200 meters
Feed system	Break-open
Sights	Iron

The TP-82 (Russian: ТП-82) was a triple-barrelled Soviet pistol that was 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 pistol could be used for hunting, to defend against predators and for visible and audible distress signals. The detachable buttstock was also a machete that came with a canvas sheath.

The upper two shotgun barrels used 12.5×70 mm ammunition (40 gauge), and the lower rifled barrel used 5.45×39mm ammunition developed for the AK-74 assault rifle. The TP-82 had a large lever on the left side of the receiver that opens the action, and a small grip-safety under the trigger-guard that resembled a secondary trigger.

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 Makarov 9mm pistol that was provided in the survival kit would be ineffective against the Siberian wildlife, namely bears and wolves.^[1]

TP-82s were carried regularly on Soviet and Russian space missions from 1986 to 2007. 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.^[2]