Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!amdahl!uunet!mcvax!ukc!etive!bob
From: bob@etive.ed.ac.uk (Bob Gray)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: "Beyond the Energia crisis"
Keywords: Soviet/American shuttle comparison
Message-ID: <972@etive.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 18 Nov 88 14:52:25 GMT
References: <880@cernvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: bob@etive.ed.ac.uk (Bob Gray)
Organization: Edinburgh Concurrent Supercomputer Project
Lines: 46

In article <880@cernvax.UUCP> jon@cernvax.UUCP (jon) writes:
>.....   [The article]  was  written  by  David
>Whitehouse but the article does not give  any  further  information  about
>him.  ....

Dr David Whitehouse is the BBC radio correspondant on space
matters.

>  "There is an office at Ramenskoye whose job it was to  obtain  all  NASA
>   documents, reports, evaluations and photographs of their shuttle.  With

i.e. do research first to find out  what work other
people have already  done on the idea.

It would have been very strange if they hadn`t done this.

>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 usualy a very well informed and objective
reporter. The above excerpts, if representitive of the whole
tone of the article, which I haven`t seen, looks a lot like
someone trying to convince himself that the Soviets haven`t
really done anything new, that they just keep stealing
everything from the west.

>Anyway I've just seen the launch itself on Swiss TV ... well I didn't  see
>the  shuttle  clear  the  launch tower, just a lot of smoke.  Then a quick

Plus low cloud and drizzle. Bad weather doesn`t stop Soviet
launches.

>switch to the control room, then another switch  to  the  shuttle  gliding
>into  land.  As  the  Swiss commentator said, they may be able to launch a
>shuttle like NASA, but they don't how to produce good news coverage of it.
>
>Did anyone see anything more than this?  I mean the shuttle we saw landing
>might not be the same one. :-)

There was a lot more. there were shots from when the shuttle
was picked up by the cameras after re-entry  through the
approach and touchdown, and various close up shots of
officials and ground crew posing for photographs under the
nose. Presumably after it had cooled off.
	Bob.