The Soviets Failed Space Shuttle Program

In 1988, the Soviets launched a new type of spacecraft that had an almost identical appearance to the Space Shuttle belonging to the United States. The Soviets didn’t just copy the US shuttle because they felt it was a better way to get to space. They copied it mostly out of fear because of what they thought the Americans planned to do with it.

In 1972, President Nixon ushered in the Space Shuttle program for NASA. The space agency wanted a spacecraft that would make spaceflight a routine endeavor. They also wanted a spacecraft that could be reusable, thus lowering the cost. The Soviets, on the other hand, had their own unique spacecraft and saw no need to compete with the Americans when the shuttle program was announced.

But by the mid-70s, the Soviets were beginning to wonder what the Americans planned to do with the shuttle. They saw that the shuttle would have the capability to take a 30-ton payload into orbit and come back to earth with a 15-ton payload. It also had the capability to be launched multiple times. Russia’s suspicions rose when NASA, with the beginning of the shuttle program, began to share the cost of launching spacecraft with the Defense Department since they wanted to send military satellites into orbit. The Soviets became concerned that the U.S. had plans to use the shuttle militarily to construct a weapon or some type of…