Replica Soviet Nuclear Launch Key

Valor

Valor

Sr Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
I've been fascinated with the keys that were used during the Cold War for the dual-key launch system of Soviet ICBMs. They are a beautiful, and disturbing, piece of history. Knowing that finding and ACTUAL one was unlikely, I'm going to settle for a replica. I've been "tinkering" in Tinkercad and build a 3-D model based on photos and measurements I found online. I uploaded to Shapeways and for $12.00 I'll get a plastic replica. A Stainless Steel one was only $40. Might just do that as well. I'll post pics when I get the print.
 
Hey thats a blast from the past literally!

A run was done years ago here, never the less always cool to see one doing them
 
I thought those were Soviet launch keys for space craft and not ICBMs. They had an actual set of these appear on Pawn Stars. The guy originally thought they were ICBM launch keys but were later determined to be for space craft. I don't know anything about them other than what was on the show, so I might be wrong. They're still cool, no matter what they launched.
 
I'm NOT an expert, but what I have gleaned from Google is there are several little design differences. And a pretty major size difference. The ICBM keys are smaller.
 
The ICBM keys were used for space flight but not the later stuff as the rockets used initially were basically ICBMs with a benign payload.
 
This reminds me of a film, I think it was Wargames when they doing a simulation. They used what looked like an ordinary key into a switch that had a plastic indicator arrow that turned with the key. How hard would it be to build that portion of the panel with the key and the indicator shown at 3:51 in this clip Michael Madsen in Wargames - YouTube
 
I got my finished 3-D print from Shapeways. It took some smoothing to get rid of some lines in the finish. But I shot it with a chrome paint and it's a passable replica.
 
Snowtrooper said:
I thought those were Soviet launch keys for space craft and not ICBMs. They had an actual set of these appear on Pawn Stars. The guy originally thought they were ICBM launch keys but were later determined to be for space craft. I don't know anything about them other than what was on the show, so I might be wrong. They're still cool, no matter what they launched.
Click to expand...

Saw that episode myself....
 
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