Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tank!oddjob!uwvax!speedy!stuart
From: stuart@speedy.cs.wisc.edu (Stuart Friedberg)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Soviet and American Shuttles
Message-ID: <6452@spool.cs.wisc.edu>
Date: 12 Oct 88 18:41:26 GMT
References: <1574@nunki.usc.edu> <3020@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> <820@super.ORG>
Sender: news@spool.cs.wisc.edu
Reply-To: stuart@speedy.cs.wisc.edu (Stuart Friedberg)
Distribution: sci.space.shuttle
Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept
Lines: 14

Unfortunately, this posting doesn't include the text I wish to respond
to, but the essence was "I have seen the Soviet shuttle; it's just like
ours, they used (stole) our design; the SRB's are just a little shorter,
they're probably delaying launch to fix the O-rings."

That is nonsense.  No matter how much the reentry body looks the same
externally, it's not our design.  The Soviet shuttle doesn't have
SRB's, and it doesn't have O-rings.  The boosters are liquid-fueled,
unlike the NASA *Solid* Rocket Boosters.  They are not assembled from
pre-fabricated sections, with field joints requiring O-rings.  The
Soviet shuttle is an external payload on an existing Soviet heavy
launcher.  The *liquid fuel* boosters *without O-rings* belong to the
launcher.  The Soviet shuttle does not have anything at all like the
NASA shuttle's SSME (Space Shuttle Main Engines).