Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!mcnc!ecsvax!urjlew
From: urjlew@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Rostyk Lewyckyj)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: New BURAN launch date
Summary: I don't follow your train of thought?
Message-ID: <5785@ecsvax.uncecs.edu>
Date: 8 Nov 88 16:45:48 GMT
References: <1810@scicom.alphacdc.com> <5754@ecsvax.uncecs.edu> <8811071608.AA16799@ois.db.toronto.edu>
Organization: UNC Educational Computing Service
Lines: 38

In article <8811071608.AA16799@ois.db.toronto.edu>, hogg@db.toronto.edu (John Hogg) writes:
% In article <5493@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> riley@beowulf.UCSD.EDU (Christian Riley) writes:
% > Of course [the Soviets] will choose a date [for Buran's Launch] to
% > maximize the embarassment to the US. Thus it will be a date that will
% > both maximize exposure and embarass the President-elect.  It will show
% > how clearly superior they are in space flight and how little the
% > President can do about it...
% 
% And did NASA chose a date for the launch of Discovery (and before
% that, the launch of Columbia) to maximize the embarrassment to the
% USSR?  From all reports, the techies over there have been explicitly
% told to run their operation their own way and get it right.  The
% political masters are not micro-managing.  Intrusion of this sort would
% in any case have manifested itself differently: Buran would have been
% flying today (November 7) as a show of Soviet capability on the
% anniversary of their revolution.  That would score points at home,
% and also abroad.
% 
% The Soviets have designed and built their own shuttle and heavylift
% system, with their own strengths and problems.  Why is it so hard to
% believe that they will test these on their own schedule?

O.k. so what's your point? 
In the U.S., for now, the politicians are most wary of trying
to get publicity from the shuttle launches. They got some real
bad press from being a contributing cause to the shuttle disaster
The soviet leadership does not have this problem just now,
and they are no less politicians than U.S. politicians. 
You are right that, to the extent, that if this were a manned
shuttle launch, they would have loved to have it up on Nov 7.
However for them its just an unmanned hardware test flight
which only has p.r. significance w.r.t the U.S., because of the
sorry state of the U.S. space program. So only external politics
is concerned. My original question was and is. Which would the
Soviets consider more important, embarass the president elect
risking a stepped up U.S. space program (after all pride and
machismo are at stake), or lay low and work as hard as you can
to gain greater superiority?