Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Soviet shuttle launch imminent
Message-ID: <1988Oct28.180827.25578@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <5876@zodiac.UUCP> <10459@cup.portal.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 88 18:08:27 GMT

In article <10459@cup.portal.com> Eric_Stewart_Plent@cup.portal.com writes:
> Is is true that the Soviets have made their new shuttle craft almost
>identical to our own shuttles (in terms of external design)?? If so, have they
>also copied the INTERNAL (computer networks, etc) portions of the
>shuttle design? ...

The overall layout of the orbiter is quite similar.  It's not identical, and
small differences can matter a lot in aerodynamics.  The insides are not
likely to be especially similar.  The propulsion systems are entirely
different.

> I wonder if they are trying to best us with basically our own technology...

The idea that the builders of Sputnik, Vostok, and Energia -- the only true
spacefaring people on Earth today -- are incapable of building a shuttle
orbiter without stealing all the technology from the US is a laughable
paranoid fantasy.  I'm amazed that so many people outside the US military
believe it.  (Paranoia is a professional requirement, to some extent,
for the military, although it's unfortunate that recent US governments
have done so poorly at keeping it under control.)  The parallels to the
US's blind complacency before Sputnik, and before the Soviet atom bomb,
are depressingly close.

This is not to say that the Soviets haven't borrowed ideas when that
proved useful, mind you.  But I'd be very surprised if the resemblances
in the two shuttles were more than superficial.
-- 
The dream *IS* alive...         |    Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
but not at NASA.                |uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu