Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!amdcad!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!mcvax!ukc!stl!stc!praxis!hilbert!macey
From: macey@praxis.co.uk (Ian Macey)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Buran (was: Stranded in LEO)
Message-ID: <3349@newton.praxis.co.uk>
Date: 16 Nov 88 16:48:54 GMT
Sender: news@praxis.co.uk
Reply-To: macey@praxis.co.uk (Ian Macey)
Organization: Praxis Systems plc, Bath, UK
Lines: 30

Previously....
>>A few weeks after the dying words of the astronauts are heard,
>>the shuttle will reenter the atmosphere at 5 or 6 miles per second.
>
>Nope.  By that time the Soviets will have salvaged it and be performing
>in-orbit repairs.  Might give it a new paint job, too.

At least the rescued astronauts will feel at home in the Russian
shuttle Buran (means Snowstorm if you haven't already been told 2**30
times). I watched the flight on BBC news last night and while the name
painted on the side was in Russian rather than Roman script, it was as
much of a copy of the US shuttle as their Concordski was a copy of the
British/French Concord, back in the 70's.

The view here appears to be that, as with Concord, it's not a case of
'only one shape for the job' but rather one of 'let the west do the
R&D and then we'll copy whatever they come up with'. Still I was
impressed by the fact that the whole mission was flown by remote
control and that the craft makes a powered landing with the aid of
jets in the tail. The parawings on the boosters and airbags/parachutes
on the center section are a great example of how the Russians use
simple cheap technology imaginatively and well, and have thus
maintained the lead in the space race.


Ian.

|\\\X\\|\  |           Ian Macey  Bath, England.  (macey@praxis.co.uk)
|\\X\\\|\\ |   ----------------------------------------------------------------
|\X\\\\|\\\|       " there are never no bugs, only bugs you haven't found "