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"The Kremlin leadership saw the space shuttle primarily as a carrier of space weapons and discounted its advertised scientific and commercial applications as an
by dalke 11y ago
"The Kremlin leadership saw the space shuttle primarily as a carrier of space weapons and discounted its advertised scientific and commercial applications as an elaborate smokescreen"
Which, to be fair, somewhat reflects the involvement of the DoD and NRO in the US shuttle design process. After all, the USAF built Vandenberg for a reason, and all the SDI people wanted x-ray killsats, kinetic bombardment satellites, etc.
- sn41 11y agoThere's a good discussion on the Soviet analysis of the US shuttle program in "The Making of a Soviet Scientist" by Roald Sagdeev. Sagdeev and Keldysh were against the shuttle since they could not find any justification, economic or otherwise, for the space shuttle. Eventually the argument that won the day was that "The Americans are smart and pragmatic, so there must be some use" for the space shuttle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Sagdeev https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Sagdeev https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mstislav_Keldysh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mstislav_Keldysh