wats@scicom.alphacdc.com (Bruce Watson) (11/04/88)
Several postings have mentioned a new launch date for BURAN of soon after Revolution Day Nov 7. Did I miss this one? On Halloween CNN reported that the next attempt would be no sooner than 20 days putting it in the third week of Nov. In any case they cannot launch in daylight if they w`ant MIR overhead.
urjlew@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Rostyk Lewyckyj) (11/06/88)
Completely non technical & highly political! Which launch date should the Soviets choose for the maximum political benefit from the event? Should they choose a date likely to produce a low news profile so that the US would be unlikely to increase its space effort, and thus they could build up their lead? Or should they try for a high profile date close after the US elections in order to pose a problem for the president elect before he is securely enthroned?
riley@beowulf.ucsd.edu (Christian Riley) (11/06/88)
Of course they will choose a date to maximize the embarassment to the US. Thus it will be a date that will both maximize exposure and embarass the President-elect. It will show how clearly superior they are in space flight and how little the Presidnet can do about it. Even though both major candidates have expressed support of NASA, in my opinion, it is just campaign politics. :( Either the govt needs to support NASA 100% or get out of the way. ------------------------------------------------------------- "Free scientific inquiry? The first adjective is redundant." "The poor don't have the right to steal, and they don't have the right to have Congress steal for them." - Ron Paul Chris Riley riley@cs.ucsd.edu
hogg@db.toronto.edu (John Hogg) (11/07/88)
In article <5493@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> riley@beowulf.UCSD.EDU (Christian Riley) writes: > Of course [the Soviets] will choose a date [for Buran's Launch] to > maximize the embarassment to the US. Thus it will be a date that will > both maximize exposure and embarass the President-elect. It will show > how clearly superior they are in space flight and how little the > President can do about it... And did NASA chose a date for the launch of Discovery (and before that, the launch of Columbia) to maximize the embarrassment to the USSR? From all reports, the techies over there have been explicitly told to run their operation their own way and get it right. The political masters are not micro-managing. Intrusion of this sort would in any case have manifested itself differently: Buran would have been flying today (November 7) as a show of Soviet capability on the anniversary of their revolution. That would score points at home, and also abroad. The Soviets have designed and built their own shuttle and heavylift system, with their own strengths and problems. Why is it so hard to believe that they will test these on their own schedule? -- John Hogg | hogg@csri.toronto.{edu,cdn} Computer Systems Research Institute| uunet!csri.toronto.edu!hogg University of Toronto | hogg%csri.toronto.edu@relay.cs.net (arpa) | hogg@csri.utoronto (bitnet)
urjlew@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Rostyk Lewyckyj) (11/09/88)
In article <8811071608.AA16799@ois.db.toronto.edu>, hogg@db.toronto.edu (John Hogg) writes: % In article <5493@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> riley@beowulf.UCSD.EDU (Christian Riley) writes: % > Of course [the Soviets] will choose a date [for Buran's Launch] to % > maximize the embarassment to the US. Thus it will be a date that will % > both maximize exposure and embarass the President-elect. It will show % > how clearly superior they are in space flight and how little the % > President can do about it... % % And did NASA chose a date for the launch of Discovery (and before % that, the launch of Columbia) to maximize the embarrassment to the % USSR? From all reports, the techies over there have been explicitly % told to run their operation their own way and get it right. The % political masters are not micro-managing. Intrusion of this sort would % in any case have manifested itself differently: Buran would have been % flying today (November 7) as a show of Soviet capability on the % anniversary of their revolution. That would score points at home, % and also abroad. % % The Soviets have designed and built their own shuttle and heavylift % system, with their own strengths and problems. Why is it so hard to % believe that they will test these on their own schedule? O.k. so what's your point? In the U.S., for now, the politicians are most wary of trying to get publicity from the shuttle launches. They got some real bad press from being a contributing cause to the shuttle disaster The soviet leadership does not have this problem just now, and they are no less politicians than U.S. politicians. You are right that, to the extent, that if this were a manned shuttle launch, they would have loved to have it up on Nov 7. However for them its just an unmanned hardware test flight which only has p.r. significance w.r.t the U.S., because of the sorry state of the U.S. space program. So only external politics is concerned. My original question was and is. Which would the Soviets consider more important, embarass the president elect risking a stepped up U.S. space program (after all pride and machismo are at stake), or lay low and work as hard as you can to gain greater superiority?