Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!db.toronto.edu!hogg
From: hogg@db.toronto.edu (John Hogg)
Subject: Re: New BURAN launch date
Message-ID: <8811071608.AA16799@ois.db.toronto.edu>
Organization: University of Toronto, CSRI
References: <1810@scicom.alphacdc.com> <5754@ecsvax.uncecs.edu> <5493@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU>
Date: Mon, 7 Nov 88 11:08:34 EST

In article <5493@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> riley@beowulf.UCSD.EDU (Christian Riley) writes:
> Of course [the Soviets] will choose a date [for Buran's Launch] to
> maximize the embarassment to the US. Thus it will be a date that will
> both maximize exposure and embarass the President-elect.  It will show
> how clearly superior they are in space flight and how little the
> President can do about it...

And did NASA chose a date for the launch of Discovery (and before
that, the launch of Columbia) to maximize the embarrassment to the
USSR?  From all reports, the techies over there have been explicitly
told to run their operation their own way and get it right.  The
political masters are not micro-managing.  Intrusion of this sort would
in any case have manifested itself differently: Buran would have been
flying today (November 7) as a show of Soviet capability on the
anniversary of their revolution.  That would score points at home,
and also abroad.

The Soviets have designed and built their own shuttle and heavylift
system, with their own strengths and problems.  Why is it so hard to
believe that they will test these on their own schedule?
-- 
John Hogg			   | hogg@csri.toronto.{edu,cdn}
Computer Systems Research Institute| uunet!csri.toronto.edu!hogg
University of Toronto		   | hogg%csri.toronto.edu@relay.cs.net (arpa)
				   | hogg@csri.utoronto (bitnet)

