> The potential Military applications of the Space Shuttle were why the Soviets copied it so closely It was just impossible for soviets, to copy STS. First, t

> The potential Military applications of the Space Shuttle were why the Soviets copied it so closely It was just impossible for soviets, to copy STS. First, they just don't have (still) anything similar to Tiocol enterprise, and can't build huge SRB's. Second, soviets have huge weakness in electronics and computers, so they just don't have payloads for such system. So Buran was pure political decision, without any rational foundations. Unfortunately for Russians, this is typical for their culture, to make something enormous and than thinking, what to do with it.