a tidbit
It's been mothballed since the breakup of the Soviet Union, but the Russian Buran reusable shuttle flew successfully in 1988. Soviet authorities didn't really know what to do with such an expensive delivery vehicle so they canceled the program, but there it is.
RussianSpaceWeb.com is a pretty fascinating site. Fun to compare with NASA. I'm beginning to formulate a theory that engineers can be very effective in collective societies. Those rocket cooperatives built some really impressive machines.
By Psydeshow on April 28, 2003 at 10:03am