Russian Space Shuttle

samcster94

Banned
There was once a Space Shuttle-like project called the Buran. What can be done to make it successful(Even with the Russian Federation)???
 
There was once a Space Shuttle-like project called the Buran. What can be done to make it successful(Even with the Russian Federation)???

I know this is a rant rather than an actual attempt at addressing your challenge, but please indulge me.

Buran looked So. Cool. but did it really have a mission that a Proton couldn't do? That's the main problem as I see it. The second half of the challenge is its own problem: the Russian federation couldn't get anything right and is still struggling. More to the point, funding was cut abruptly and the brains ran away whenever they could. It's hard to finish a very complex project with no clear goal when that kind of thing happens.
 
I know this is a rant rather than an actual attempt at addressing your challenge, but please indulge me.

Buran looked So. Cool. but did it really have a mission that a Proton couldn't do? That's the main problem as I see it. The second half of the challenge is its own problem: the Russian federation couldn't get anything right and is still struggling.
That's not quite true; the Russians did a fairly solid job of selling the launch services of the rockets that they already had, and pretty much ran the United States out of whatever bits of the commercial market were left after the Shuttle own goal (and outcompeted the Chinese, though in all fairness that was helped by the Chinese having several high-profile accidents and then ITAR). Granted, that was with American corporate help, but still, they were quite successful. Not to mention, obviously, that they basically kept the ISS running (with a ton of American money, granted, but getting the Americans to give them tons of money was an achievement of its own) after the Columbia disaster and since the Shuttle retirement, in terms of both crew and, to a lesser extent, cargo transport.

The main problem with the post-Soviet space program has been rather disinvestment and a tendency to announce and pursue overly grandiose goals like building new launch facilities or developing new launch vehicles that would have been troublesome even in Soviet days, let alone in a poorer Russia. Not to mention their habit of trying to get other countries to pay to run the Russian space program. It worked once, but trying it again is pushing your luck at best. Roscosmos and the contractors/design bureaus would have done better if they had recognized the limits of their capacity and focused just on running and upgrading their existing facilities and rockets instead of starting so many new programs that transparently couldn't get anywhere.

Anyway, to get back to the OP's question, there's actually a rather good timeline on this site, The Snow Flies, which pretty much exactly tackles this subject. I suggest reading it.
 
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