Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!hplabs!decwrl!ucbvax!husc6!cfa!cfa250!mcdowell
From: mcdowell@cfa250.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: "Beyond the Energia crisis"
Message-ID: <1161@cfa237.cfa250.harvard.edu>
Date: 17 Nov 88 15:16:55 GMT
References: <880@cernvax.UUCP>
Organization: Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Lines: 37

From article <880@cernvax.UUCP>, by jon@cernvax.UUCP (jon):
About Dave Whitehouse's article in the Guardian:

> This is the first time I have heard that  the  Russian  ever  had  serious
> plans to land a man on the moon.  Is it true?

Yes, most analysts believe the evidence is very strong. The Zond missions
in 1968-1970, in which a Soyuz was sent round the moon with animals instead
of a human crew on board, then recovered back on Earth, is considered
a dead giveaway. Soviet statements prior to Apollo 8 in Dec 1968 were
quite explicit about there plans for a landing, and Soviet cosmonauts
at the 1967 Paris Air Show told their American counterparts that
they had been practising helicopter flying for moon landing training.
In addition, the widespread reports that three Saturn V class boosters
exploded on the way to orbit in 1969-1972 seem fairly solid, especially
given the old launch pad now seen next to the Energia pads, whose existence
was deduced from Landsat photos in the early 1970's.

> On the design of "shuttleski" he says
[Whitehouse summarizes the development of the Soviet Shuttle mainly based
on gossip of varying levels of credibility that has appeared in Aviation Week
over the past ten years]

> 
> What I was left wondering  after  reading  this  article  is,  who  is  Mr
> Whitehouse  (A  fictitious  name  maybe :-)), and where did he get all his
> information.  The whole article smacks of sour grapes to me.

Dr. Whitehouse is an X-ray astronomer at the Mullard Space Science Lab
in the UK (or at least he used to be, he now seems to be mostly writing
space articles in the UK press). He usually gets his information from NASA
press releases and from Flight International and Aviation Week, just like
most other people. His information does not seem to be based on the information
that has appeared in the Soviet press.


Jonathan McDowell