[net.columbia] Soviet Shuttle

sjb (06/10/82)

The USSR launched and recovered its first test of its first
space shuttle, US officials say.  They do not know whether or
not the vehicle was manned.  It went up last week and came
down after one orbit, about 90 minutes.  The Soviets are
expected to have an operational shuttle system by the 1990's.

pcmcgeer (06/11/82)

	Canadian news tonight had more on the story:
	Apparently the Soviet shuttle is smaller than Columbia, but winged.
The latest flight was unmanned, and took place from a secret rocket base in
the Ukraine, splashing down in the Indian Ocean.  It was picked up by Soviet
ships in the area.  The pickup was observed by Australian seamen in the area.
	Several things occur to me:
	(a) either we've been snowed, or the Soviets just can't build a
Columbia-like shuttle.  Dammit, Columbia can't fly without those IBM minis
to control the attitude jets, and (we were told) a simpler attitude jet system
won't work: remember Yeager's NF-104 near-disaster.  Their most advanced
computers are old 370/158's - they won't work, and you can't build today's
minis out of 370-level technology.  Second, they can't have anything like
Columbia's tile system - no materials industry.
	(b) Given (a), and preliminary descriptions of the vehicle, isn't
it more likely that the Soviet "shuttle" is really more an X-20 or a
DynaSoar?  After all, the only people who've seen the thing are Australian
seamen, from a fair distance.  Maybe a top-flight aerospace engineer could
tell the difference between an X-20 and a shuttle from that distance, but I couldn't.
	(c) Why did it splash down?  The Soviets pioneered hard landings.  Why
was this one different?  Is it just because the Soviets wouldn't splash
spacecraft down in the early 1960's, when the West had navies and the Russians
didn't?
	Aside from the editorials, only one more thing:  Canadian news
(Global news in Toronto, for you Canadians on the net) quoted unnamed US
officials as saying that the Soviet shuttle had flown several times, and
that this was merely the first landing Westerners had observed.

goutal (06/14/82)

Concerning Soviet computer technology,
I have heard that they have an PDP-11/05 lookalike in their 'stable'.
Dunno if that would be all that much of an improvement over the other
possibilities mentioned for their alleged shuttle's nav system,
but then again it might.