Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!pyrdc!pyrnj!dasys1!tneff
From: tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: "Beyond the Energia crisis"
Keywords: Soviet/American shuttle comparison
Message-ID: <7759@dasys1.UUCP>
Date: 17 Nov 88 20:26:34 GMT
References: <880@cernvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Organization: Independent Users Guild
Lines: 32

In article <880@cernvax.UUCP> jon@cernvax.UUCP (jon) writes:
>This is a resume of an article which appeared in the English newspaper The
>Guardian  on  Tuesday  15th  November  1988.   It  was  written  by  David
>Whitehouse but the article does not give  any  further  information  about
>him.  Mr  Whitehouse believes that the Soviet shuttle is a planned copy of
>the American shuttle and goes on to give his reasons...

I wonder less about Mr Whitehouse's bona fides than I do about his
source.  You have to ask yourself, who would that source be?  Here we
are right after the successful launch, and this reporter surfaces with
what is presumably intended to be read as an "insider account" of how
the Soviet shuttle was built... the conclusion being, they're
hopelessly behind us [!] and so were forced to steal our plans.  Now,
who would be - or APPEAR to be - in a position to know this kind of
stuff?  Perhaps a disgruntled Soviet engineer... although any Soviet
rocketeer who (a) was active recently enough to have been working on
the orbiter project, which is generally thought to have been born in
1982, yet (b) had become a disgruntled whistle-blower since that time,
would seem unlikely to be given the opportunity to unburden himself to
Fleet Street.  Who else?  Why, "Western intelligence sources" in the
inimitable phrase.  Not only is it plausible that the USG would wish to
place their own "spin" on what would otherwise be an undiluted
publicity and engineering triumph for the Soviet space program... it
would be downright lazy of them not to do so!  I would expect nothing
less for my covert tax dollar. :-)

UK papers take a few days to appear here in NY, I will keep my
eyes open for this article.
-- 
Tom Neff			UUCP: ...!cmcl2!phri!dasys1!tneff
	"None of your toys	CIS: 76556,2536	       MCI: TNEFF
	 will function..."	GEnie: TOMNEFF	       BIX: t.neff (no kidding)