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failurebeatssuccess t1_j4x8fbs wrote

Its called the Buran. ANother ripoff - just like concordski and would likely have been about as safe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_(spacecraft)

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DarkArcher__ t1_j4xb8qg wrote

Buran was by all means a better shuttle. Far safer, too. It could fly with more payload than the American Shuttle, and it could go all the way from takeoff to orbit to landing on a runway with no crew onboard, meaning that no crew had to be risked for missions that did not require them. It had far more abort options thanks to Energia's liquid boosters, which could be shut down unlike the SRBs on the American Shuttle. If the orbiter wasnt required, Energia could even fly on its own with massive payload making it more flexible.

Unfortunately Buran was really just the product of the cold war tensions. It was developed as a response to some capabilities the USSR thought the American Shuttle had, mainly in the realm of satellite recovery, which it did not. Therefore, and much like the MiG-25/F-15 situation, it was overbuilt. It came at a time where the USSR was speeding head first into economic collapse and despite the spacecraft's (and rocket's) fantastic capabilities, it just was not possible to finance a program like this. Buran ended up flying once, flawlessly, and Energia twice, equally flawlessly (despite the failure in the actual payload, Polyus).

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topcat5 t1_j4xblz5 wrote

Absolutely not. It was not a knockoff. There were significant differences in the design & Energia was a completely new launch platform.

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dfernr10 t1_j4x9cyu wrote

Nope. It was far more safe and better.

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AvcalmQ t1_j4xacby wrote

Well yeah, given it never had a live human occupant to kill so naturally it'd be safer.

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dfernr10 t1_j4xb9sm wrote

Not talking about that, but about the design. It was way safer than US Shuttle.

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[deleted] t1_j4xd0rb wrote

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Enorats t1_j4xhk7z wrote

It is fairly widely accepted to have been the safer of the two shuttle designs. The issues that the US shuttles ran into were addressed in the design of the Buran. The Buran didn't have debris from its own launch vehicle raining down on top of it for example.

The only reason they discontinued the program was because of the expense, and because they didn't really have a use for it. It was the smart call, though the smarter call would have been to never make it in the first place. The Shuttle probably set US space exploration back by decades, marvel (albeit flawed) of engineering that it was.

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[deleted] t1_j4xqq3t wrote

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dfernr10 t1_j4z8n0l wrote

I suggest you to read this article. Use the Google translation if you may the results are pretty accurate.

Of course, Buran never have the privilege to be flown more times to test It, but the engineering decisions were safer.

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