OPS-4

Mission Profile

OPS-4 was a proposed fourth-generation Soviet Almaz military space station concept studied in the late 1970s as a follow-on to the operational Almaz stations (Salyut 2, 3, and 5). The design would have incorporated improved reconnaissance systems, longer crew rotation intervals, and enhanced on-orbit resupply capability compared to the earlier Almaz stations. OPS-4 was not approved for production as the Soviet military increasingly shifted toward unmanned reconnaissance satellites which proved more cost-effective and less operationally risky than crewed reconnaissance stations, leading to the eventual wind-down of the Almaz crewed station program.