Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!syntron!jtsv16!uunet!super!laurel
From: laurel@super.ORG (Our Friends Up the Way)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Soviet and American Shuttles
Message-ID: <820@super.ORG>
Date: 11 Oct 88 21:29:47 GMT
Article-I.D.: super.820
References: <1574@nunki.usc.edu> <3020@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
Sender: uucp@super.ORG
Reply-To: laurel@super.UUCP (Michael Tighe)
Distribution: sci.space.shuttle,sci.space
Organization: Supercomputing Research Center, Lanham, Md.
Lines: 15

In article <1574@nunki.usc.edu> birenboi@sal6.usc.edu (Aaron Birenboim) writes:

>THE SOVIET SHUTTLE HAS JET ENGINES.  The soviet shuttle is actually a 
>full fledged PLANE.  They have flown it around, and it has the ability
>to take off from the ground, as a plane does!  No more talk about the
>soviets copying us.  They used our exterior design idea, but made
>MANY, MANY improvements to it.

Rubbish! I have seen the Soviet Space Shuttle, and it is almost 
identical to ours. In fact, most Americans would not be able to 
tell the difference between it and ours (except for the CCCP marking
on the left wing). The most obvious difference I noticed was that
the SRB's are much shorter. Other than that, its' a genuine
example of technology transfer. First flight is scheduled for early
December; delayed probably by a need to redesign the O rings.