Myasishchev VM-T heavy transport aircraft - photo

[Altair]

Myasishchev VM-T Atlant heavy transport aircraft used by the Soviets to transport rocket boosters for the Buran program.

Fullsize image: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...r_fullsize.jpg

[bruce.desertrat]

I remember the day (I was in 5th or 6th grade) one of the SuperGuppy planes flew overhead with some Saturn V parts for a moon mission. Also when They flew the last shuttle over the us https://www.flickr.com/photos/352457...7631583272803/

It's ironic ours flew when the Buran didn't, but we're still (until recently) still dependent on a 1960s design Soyuz for access to ISS.

[Frank S]

[QUOTE=bruce.desertrat;
It's ironic ours flew when the Buran didn't, but we're still (until recently) still dependent on a 1960s design Soyuz for access to ISS.[/QUOTE]

only because the USA space program was allowed to stagnate.
The old sky lab should have never been allowed to reenter the atmosphere, it should have been boosted to a high lunar orbit for future use.
Half of the shuttles could have been retired docked or tethered to the ISS or parked in a slightly higher orbit where orbital decay would require less fuel or corrections to keep them up there. Someday they are going to figure out that a lot of the obsolete stuff up there will be more valuable by already being there than boosting other materials to space

[roger3g]

Myasishchev VM-T Atlant heavy transport aircraft used by the Soviets to transport rocket boosters for the Buran program.

Fullsize image: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...r_fullsize.jpg

Most beautiful photograph, though the container being carried looks a little tatterd.

[mwmkravchenko]

The Buran did fly. Once. And it did so completely remotely piloted at that. Something that was never done by NASA.

[TrickieDickie]

I was able to see a shuttle piggy-backed on the 747 briefly circling over New Orleans back in the mid 80s. The exciting view was seeing the re-entry of a shuttle over Baton Rouge then the sonic boom.

[mwmkravchenko]

only because the USA space program was allowed to stagnate.
The old sky lab should have never been allowed to reenter the atmosphere, it should have been boosted to a high lunar orbit for future use.
Half of the shuttles could have been retired docked or tethered to the ISS or parked in a slightly higher orbit where orbital decay would require less fuel or corrections to keep them up there. Someday they are going to figure out that a lot of the obsolete stuff up there will be more valuable by already being there than boosting other materials to space

Sure go ahead and make sense! The entire problem is that the U.S. space industries are white elephants except SpaceX. Why think forward and economically when you can spend billions to make new ones?

As for Old technology. If it doesn't break, why fix? Old technology includes far more efficient rockets as well. You are the last guy to ever need to tell that old is not a problem. Boeing's latest space capsule is a great example of bouncing baby teething problems. The entire ISS is a Soviet design licensed by the Americans. The Soviets had the most experience hands down on long term engineering for space applications.

Skylab was a great idea that was scuttled for political reasons. As were the two fully designed single stage to orbit systems that were mothballed. All about politics and money. Not about what works.