Taking a short break from the politics of the day:
This site (from Australia, the first line of which is, “Welcome to my site about the Energia Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (HLLV). ) makes a compelling case for the superiority of the Energia/Buran system over the US Space Shuttle.
The only improvement I can see would be in putting the Buran shuttle on the top of the stack rather than the side to completely eliminate the possiblity of ice or insulation falling off to damage the shuttle component.
Ironcially, the Buran shuttle was regarded as a “knock-off” of the Space Shuttle whose design was achieved through Soviet espionage. However, a rudimentary examination will reveal that similar specifications resulted in a similar design, but the Soviets made several improvements that gave the Energia/Buran system a significantly higher cargo capacity than the Space Shuttle, and possibly a higher maximum orbit.
Sadly, the technology developed for this program has been neglected and in large part the infrastructure to replicate it no longer exists.
In my early days in the semiconductor industry, I encountered directly the results of a lot of the research done by the Soviet Union, in my case, specifically, the growth of high quality magnesium fluoride crystals for use in transmission of very short wavelength UV light to create reactions on the surface of a silicon wafer. The Soviets (or rather, those living under the Soviet regime, including the Russians, Ukranians, and many other nations) did some incredible work, not despite but because of their limitations. They understood theory better than anyone else, because they didn’t have the luxuries that those of us in the West had of money to perform a lot of experiments.
I suspect they are still ahead in understanding the fundamentals.
We have neglected this expertise, and this neglect has resulted in a loss that while not fatal is certainly a setback to the progress of humanity as a whole.
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Cross-posted to Random Fate.