[Nowhere Man]

I remember in David H. Ahl’s 1970’s era books on computer games in BASIC where you would type them in and play them, there was a starship battle simulator that used everything from lasers to conventional machine guns and cannons. I remember in physics class, I asked if you can fire a pistol or rifle in space and/or on the Moon and it would work because the powder has it’s own oxidizer to burn. I assume the Russki’s 23mm cannon works on that same principle.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

It must of have been difficult keeping the space station oriented and shaking to pieces when firing. They must have burned a lot of hydrazine keep it stable.

[300winmag]

I assume the Russki’s 23mm cannon works on that same principle.

Gunpowder does have its own oxidizer along with the solid fuel, so no outside air is needed. That's also why guns can be fired underwater, but usually not very well. Glock sells special plastic seals for their handguns to seal in air for certain parts that won't work properly under water, but the ammunition is fine.

The soviet scientists were afraid of letting the cosmonauts fire the cannon while they were aboard, but they did fire it remotely when there was no crew in orbit. They said the recoil was so bad, they were afraid it would shake the spacecraft to pieces, so they didn't experiment with cannon after that.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Of course you can fire a pistol in space. The issue is recoil. If you read the article, they fire maneuver rockets to counter the recoil. You also need to make sure that the force of the recoil is acting along an axis that intersects the spacecraft's center of gravity, or else you'll spin wildly. That's why the gun was aimed by reorienting the entire spacecraft, otherwise it would have to have been mounted at the CG, which, surprisingly, is generally close to where the inertial navigational unit is. (There is a detectable oscillation in some spacecraft's “orbits” that is actually an artifact of the moment arm between the INU and CG and body rotation.)