carl@athena.ads.com (Carl Tollander) (10/24/88)
The BBC just announced that the soviet shuttle, christened "Snowstorm", will be launched within the next couple of days. They say the first flight will be unmanned. It would probably be worth checking CNN periodically, since they supposedly carried the first Energia launch.
Eric_Stewart_Plent@cup.portal.com (10/25/88)
Is is true that the Soviets have made their new shuttle craft almost identical to our own shuttles (in terms of external design)?? If so, have they also copied the INTERNAL (computer networks, etc) portions of the shuttle design? I wonder if they are trying to best us with basically our own technology...
henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (10/29/88)
In article <10459@cup.portal.com> Eric_Stewart_Plent@cup.portal.com writes: > Is is true that the Soviets have made their new shuttle craft almost >identical to our own shuttles (in terms of external design)?? If so, have they >also copied the INTERNAL (computer networks, etc) portions of the >shuttle design? ... The overall layout of the orbiter is quite similar. It's not identical, and small differences can matter a lot in aerodynamics. The insides are not likely to be especially similar. The propulsion systems are entirely different. > I wonder if they are trying to best us with basically our own technology... The idea that the builders of Sputnik, Vostok, and Energia -- the only true spacefaring people on Earth today -- are incapable of building a shuttle orbiter without stealing all the technology from the US is a laughable paranoid fantasy. I'm amazed that so many people outside the US military believe it. (Paranoia is a professional requirement, to some extent, for the military, although it's unfortunate that recent US governments have done so poorly at keeping it under control.) The parallels to the US's blind complacency before Sputnik, and before the Soviet atom bomb, are depressingly close. This is not to say that the Soviets haven't borrowed ideas when that proved useful, mind you. But I'd be very surprised if the resemblances in the two shuttles were more than superficial. -- The dream *IS* alive... | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology but not at NASA. |uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu