Russia’s Abandoned Rival To The Space Shuttle Is A Rusting Reminder Of The Race To Govern Space

Jalopnik ^ | 12/10/2024 | Owen Bellwood

[Alberta's Child]

As I remember it from reading in astronomy publications in the 1980s, the “failure” of the Soviet space shuttle program had nothing to do with the technology. It was mainly the result of the Soviet space program leadership recognizing that this type of reusable space vehicle was highly inefficient and an enormous waste of money. The success of the Soviet space program was built on its superior personnel and their use of the most simple and reliable technology needed for their manned missions.

NASA’s iconic Space Shuttle is arguably one of the best things America has made thanks to its sleek looks, its use in the launch of the International Space Station and its contribution to our understanding of the cosmos through the countless satellites it launched into orbit.

If the space shuttle was really one of the best things America has made, then NASA wouldn’t have terminated the shuttle program. The lasting legacy of the space shuttle program is that 50% of the spacecraft they made were destroyed in catastrophic incidents that cost the lives of more than a dozen crew members.

[EnderWiggin1970]

The Soviets were fortunate; they didn’t try to keep using an insanely expensive, unsafe and inefficient design they way the American’s did, setting back the US program by decades, wasting billions of dollars, and killing 14 astronauts in catastrophic accidents that destroyed 40% of their fleet.

[dagunk]

The Russian people are genuinely some smart people.

**************************************************

Yes they are. More people need to understand this.

The political system is what killed them.

Some local idjits also need to understand what socialism does.

[Miami Rebel]

Let’s be serious: the Soviets weren’t making a judgment on the US space program. They were woefully behind in technology and in funding, the same factors that plagued all state endeavors whether military or industrial in the last decade of the USSR.

[rxh4n1]

***It looks like stolen technology they couldn’t quite get to work***

“NASA’s iconic Space Shuttle is arguably one of the best things America has made thanks to its sleek looks”

The shuttle was compromised by cheese-paring budgeting. It was originally intended to be a fully reusable space plane. I wouldn’t call it iconic. We couldn’t quite get it to work as well as intended. It was supposed to have a regular launch schedule. We never achieved that and we lost two of them.