[OXENinFLA]

Moscow felt the need to respond with a comparable craft

Comparable?

It's practically a copy!

[mym]

==It's practically a copy!==

The Soviet solution was to attempt to copy as much of the American Shuttle design as possible in order to insure the success of Buran. However, they modified the American approach, where necessary, to take advantage of Soviet strengths and eliminate technologies that were beyond their capabilities.