Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!rutgers!pyrnj!pyrdc!uunet!super!laurel
From: laurel@super.ORG (Our Friends Up the Way)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Soviet and American Shuttles
Message-ID: <828@super.ORG>
Date: 17 Oct 88 23:22:51 GMT
References: <1574@nunki.usc.edu> <3020@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> <820@super.ORG> <1988Oct14.170004.1668@utzoo.uucp>
Sender: uucp@super.ORG
Reply-To: laurel@super.UUCP (Michael Tighe)
Organization: Supercomputing Research Center, Lanham, Md.
Lines: 40


     Recently an article I posted has generated some mail and
some postings. I am going to take this opportunity to clarify
what I said. The article I responded to had the following text:
 
>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!
 
     This make the SSS sound like some kind of MiG. I answered
with the following text:
 
>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).
 
Then to my regret, I added:
 
>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.
 
Unfortunately a few readers took these last comments seriously;
Come on! This is obviously a facetious statement. Like I know
when the Soviets are going to launch? I don't know when NASA is
going to launch (and neither do they). My apologies for injecting
a little humor into the topic. Sure, I could have said the Energia
or liquid-fuel boosters, but as they say at the newspaper, "Why
let the facts interfere with a good story?" (more humor).
 
     I found it odd that the readers that knew the booster rocket
story was wrong respond to it but did not respond to the errors
in the original posting about the SSS being a plane. Better check
your AW&ST subscription.
-- 
Michael Tighe
Supercomputer Research Center
ARPA: laurel@super.org