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IIRC the requirement was to be able to snatch a Soviet satellite & land wit it in less then one orbit. Here it is demonstrated in KSP (with a SSTO, not shuttle
by m4rtink 6y ago
IIRC the requirement was to be able to snatch a Soviet satellite & land wit it in less then one orbit. Here it is demonstrated in KSP (with a SSTO, not shuttle though): https://youtu.be/pFCQEgnKwdY https://youtu.be/pFCQEgnKwdY
On the other hand Soviets were reportedly scared to death of shuttle starting on a "normal" mission only to use it's wings and heat shield to dip into the atmosphere and change it's inclination, so that the new orbit passes directly over Moscow, from an unexpected angle. Then it would drop a 20 ton worth of RVs with nukes in a decapitation strike without any warning.
It is estimated that this is one of the reasons why the Energie & Buran program were started - they also wanted part of the "fun".