Before Buran, Energia launched Polyus. The ominous looking black Russian deathstar satellite. Polyus was rushed and the failure to reach orbit was not due to En

Before Buran, Energia launched Polyus. The ominous looking black Russian deathstar satellite. Polyus was rushed and the failure to reach orbit was not due to Energia. I called my laptop polyus. The Russian economy might have collapsed and killed off Buran and the Energia launcher but the engine technology survived so I think images of abandoned Russian rockets probably don't give a balanced impression of their space program. Energia was powered by the four chamber RD-170 engine. Thirty years after Buran, the two chamber variant, the RD-180 powers ULA's very reliable Atlas V which carries a lot of US government payloads to orbit and the single chamber RD-181 variant powers Orbital ATK's new Antares rocket. Good engine designs hang around. SLS is going to fly on a stockpile of saved Shuttle engines. Energia's engines are going to remain a player in US launches until Bezos's Blue Origin get their BE-4 engine to market and vehicles like ULA's Vulcan and Blue Origin's New Glenn are built.