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Space Shuttle

Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2014 12:13 am
by Pawelk198604
I know it long run i still have problem with mercury/vostok mission :) But i wonder does in game later on will have space shuttles?

Re: Space Shuttle

Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2014 10:40 am
by piggysanTH
I think it will be in part two.I want to see Buran too!

Re: Space Shuttle

Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2014 8:32 pm
by Pawelk198604
piggysanTH wrote:I think it will be in part two.I want to see Buran too!

Yes Buran was also great, maybe even better because it's can land fully automated while American STS required pilot-astronauts.

I why some people think that space shuttle was step i wrong direction, and Russians did right that they canceled Buran program(actually they was forced to this because Soviet Union feel apart and bankrupted)

Re: Space Shuttle

Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2014 11:12 pm
by Drewpan
Hi Guys,

The Space Shuttle was a step in the right direction that was mutilated by the USAF and slammed by
Congress budget cuts. The USAF were originally promised their own Military Shuttles for those
Secret Squirrel missions they like so much and then were told they wouldn't get any. This is part of
the reason Vandenburg AFB is the way it is. They built the infrastructure and could technically launch
shuttles from there. After this happened they pulled their funding.

Congress were for some reason convinced that NASA was covertly trying to go to Mars and so severely
limited funding at a critical time (Vietnam didn't help or Social unrest either).

NASA just wanted a "Space Truck" to cheaply haul stuff to orbit and do the Magic up there. They ended up
with the most expensive launch system on the planet.

For a fantastic and interesting read on this there are a couple of books by Heppenheimer called
"The Space Shuttle Decision"and "Development of the Space Shuttle". Well worth the investment.

In terms of the game - Bring it ON! X-15, Dyna-Soar, Venture Star, PKA, Buran - Yes!

Cheers!

Andrew (Drewpan)

Re: Space Shuttle

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2014 1:35 am
by Pawelk198604
Drewpan wrote:Hi Guys,

The Space Shuttle was a step in the right direction that was mutilated by the USAF and slammed by
Congress budget cuts. The USAF were originally promised their own Military Shuttles for those
Secret Squirrel missions they like so much and then were told they wouldn't get any. This is part of
the reason Vandenburg AFB is the way it is. They built the infrastructure and could technically launch
shuttles from there. After this happened they pulled their funding.

Congress were for some reason convinced that NASA was covertly trying to go to Mars and so severely
limited funding at a critical time (Vietnam didn't help or Social unrest either).

NASA just wanted a "Space Truck" to cheaply haul stuff to orbit and do the Magic up there. They ended up
with the most expensive launch system on the planet.

For a fantastic and interesting read on this there are a couple of books by Heppenheimer called
"The Space Shuttle Decision"and "Development of the Space Shuttle". Well worth the investment.

In terms of the game - Bring it ON! X-15, Dyna-Soar, Venture Star, PKA, Buran - Yes!

Cheers!

Andrew (Drewpan)
You could say that the Russians did a good job that gave up their space shuttles and instead focused on the further development of their own Soyuz series spacecrafts:-)

But on the other hand, if no space shuttles today we would not have these beautiful pics wonders of the cosmos, because what kind of racket would be able to send into orbit behemoth such as the Hubble Space Telescope :D

Re: Space Shuttle

Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 6:04 am
by Drewpan
Hi
Pawelk198604 wrote:

You could say that the Russians did a good job that gave up their space shuttles and instead focused on the further development of their own Soyuz series spacecrafts:-)

But on the other hand, if no space shuttles today we would not have these beautiful pics wonders of the cosmos, because what kind of racket would be able to send into orbit behemoth such as the Hubble Space Telescope :D
The Russians did an excellent job with Buran, it was a great shame they ran out of money when they did.

If we didn't have shuttles, Atlas and Titan could lift Hubble and even the ISS bits and pieces as the payload
bay on the shuttle was designed to lift, mass and size, the later model American Spy Satellites. When the USAF
found out they couldn't have a Shuttle of their own they abandoned it funding wise and spent the money on
developing Atlas and Titan further because they did have control over these Boosters and could launch the
Military Payloads they wanted.

I love Hubble and what it has achieved, however I hate what Congress has forced NASA to do to keep it when
it should have been retired. When Congress and the Public found out Hubble was going to be retired they
forced NASA to burn one of the last Shuttle missions to service it and keep it up there, which sounds like a
good idea. However the James Webb telescope which is bigger, better and still sitting in storage mothballed
because NASA doesn't have enough money to complete and launch it may never be launched. NASA will get
hammered for wasting money because of it. If Congress had kept out of it, they already cripple the Organisation
with the budget, the $2 Billion it cost to keep Hubble up there would have been enough to finish JW Telescope,
decommission Hubble and launch JW. The end result would be MORE amazing discoveries.

<Rant>
ONE less Nuclear Submarine or ONE less Aircraft Carrier in the USA Military Budget would help NASA enormously.
They are probably the most efficient Government Department on the planet they have been savaged budget wise
for so long.
</Rant>

Cheers

Andrew (Drewpan)

Re: Space Shuttle

Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 2:21 pm
by Sabratha
I disagree. While I do not think that Buran was a horrible device or much inferior than the US equivalent, fact is that it drenched a huge chunk of the soviet budget, took very long to complete and once it was complete there was little actual use for it.

I personally think that Glushko was right in the 70s and that the funds would be put to better use to build the Vulkan booster and the Zvyezda base program. But we will never know how taht would end up.

What we do know in hindsight is that Buran ultimately proved to be of no use. In defence of the decision makes at the time one has to point out that they could not have predicted such a rapid economic collapse of the USSR in the late 80s.

What they could and should have been able to predict was the huge cost and long development time of the Buran shuttle, plus the limited use this shuttle had for other existing soviet programs.