Really cool, but also not as useful as a regular old 1W laser pointer. It was for frying sensors on ships, not actually hurting people. I guess the idea was if you fried all their cameras, they wouldn't be able to safely approach?

Ooh, I remember reading about that. Old grandpa space shit is my jam. It wasn't really a "laser" exactly, more of a magazine-fed flashbulb. The US airforce developed something simlar in conjunction with NASA for proposed defense of a hypothetical moon-base, but eventually decided normal pistols & shotguns would work fine if you get special vacuum lubricant.

The Soviets sent up quite a lot of wacky atompunk weapons & shit back in the day. That 3-in-1 survival rifle, a 40mm AA cannon they strapped to one of their early stations, and the anti-Starwars particle beam that (thankfully?) didn't make orbit.

The US undoubtedly did too, but it's still mostly classified. But hell, just the peeks at the Casaba Howitzer system are terrifying.