Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!scs!cognos!geovision!alastair
From: alastair@geovision.uucp (Alastair Mayer)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: What's Wrong with this Picture?
Message-ID: <418@geovision.UUCP>
Date: 4 Oct 88 14:24:41 GMT
Article-I.D.: geovisio.418
References: <6981@ihlpl.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: alastair@geovision.UUCP (Alastair Mayer)
Organization: GeoVision Corp, Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 50

In article <6981@ihlpl.ATT.COM> knudsen@ihlpl.ATT.COM (Knudsen) writes:
>Amongst all the photos of our re-entry into space,
>there was one of the shuttle stack sitting on the pad.
>It was a little funny:
>(1) The gantry didn't look quite like any angle Id seen
>(2) The ET was a bit skinny
>(3) The booster fairings, instead of conical crayon points,
>were dovetailed into the ET (a good idea, seems to me)
>(4) Some kids had spray-painted "CCCP" on the port wing.
>
>Well, you can guess that the caption said "First released
>photo of the new Soviet shuttle."  It's nice to know Xerox
>sells to the Soviets, or was it Sharp?  No, Toshiba of course!
>
>I knew there shuttle was similar to ours, but not only is
>the orbiter the same shape, but even the color scheme is the same,
>with black leading edges and all!
>
>Kidding aside, have I read on this newsgroup
>that their boosters are liquid fueled?  The caption referred
>to them as Energias.
>Do they use tiles?  I know they throw titanium around like
>plastic (whole submarines with titanium hulls).

Just because a shark and a dolphin have similar shapes, does that mean
one is a copy of the other?  The US and Soviet shuttles have similar
shapes for aerodynamic reasons.  (Not totally true - other shapes would
work, but US shuttle proved that large delta wing works.)   The structures
are totally different.  The color scheme, by the way, is dictated by
thermal loads during reentry (but I expect you knew that).

There are quite a few differences:  the Soviet shuttle doesn't have
(main) engines - the main engines are at the base of the ET-like
structure.  They are (like shuttle) LH2/LOX engines.   The strap-on
boosters are *liquid* (lox/kerosene ?) not solid.

Yes, the basic central tank and engines, plus liquid boosters, is
the Energia heavy-lift launcher.  The shuttle is just one of the
payloads it can boost.  It can be used for straight cargo by using
a cargo pod instead of the shuttle.  It can lift more by adding
strap on boosters.  
   Furthermore, it's recoverable.  The boosters separate and recover
by parachute.  The central tank and engines are apparently also
recoverable, but splits into three sections (engines, O2 tank, H2 tank)
for recovery (dunno how they're recovered though).
   Shuttleski has been on and off the pad several times this year.
Some rumor of software problems delaying the launch, but most likely
explanation I heard (given Soviet way of thinking) was that the
were various political considerations in the timing vis a vis its
probable overshadowing of other newsworthy events.