The Allies Second Front in World War II

The Allies Second Front in World War II: Why Were Canadian Troops Sacrificed at Dieppe?

The Space Shuttle was designed as a carrier for a First-Strike-Weapon

At the end of the 1960's and the beginning of the 1970's the United States began new research in the use of spacecraft for the destruction of military targets in and from space. In the late 1960's development began at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory of a space-based nuclear weapon-pumped laser. This was originally envisioned as a fearsome weapon, consisting of several dozen independently aimed lasing rods arranged around the bomb. When the bomb exploded, a large percentage of its force would be conducted down the lasing rods toward the targets at which they pointed (in the microsecond before the rods themselves vaporised).

At the same time the Air Force and NASA were studying reusable space shuttles. A single shuttle payload bay of such weapons had the potential of destroying the entire Soviet ICBM force - not just in launch phase but in a first strike, frying them right through the silo covers. One of the most heavily classified projects of the time, it still came to the attention of Soviet intelligence.

During this same period NASA was struggling to justify a post-Apollo space program. The Nixon administration decided that the USAF shuttle project would be dropped, and their requirements incorporated into the NASA design. One of these requirements was a mission involving a launch into polar orbit from Vandenberg Air Force base, release of unspecified payloads into orbit, and return to Vandenberg after a single orbit of the Earth. This requirement forced NASA to drop their preferred straight-wing design for a heavier double-delta wing that had the necessary cross range.

Start from Vandenberg. Fly over the (north-)pole. Release a weapon (and detonate it over the Soviet Union). Return to Vandenberg. Rinse and repeat if necessary.

But in my view, this "First Strike" capability of the Space Shuttle was more a selling point than reality, just like the supposed ease and frequency of the Space Shuttle launches. But to the Soviet leadership, it seemed like a real threat.

The Soviet leadership saw their worst fears confirmed. This was a modern version of the first-strike multiple-warhead UR-500 and N1 super heavy rockets which they had developed but then abandoned in the early 1960's. 

The reaction to the Space Shuttle was the Buran shuttle, which was supposedly very expensive.

It seems that two things broke the back of the Soviet Union: The Afghan War and the Buran project. Both were a reaction to the US – how ironic.

Quotes from a bygone era

You must remember that our Soviet land is impoverished after many years of trial and suffering and has no Socialist France or Socialist England as neighbours to keep us with their highly developed technology and highly developed industry. Bear that in mind! We must remember that at present all their highly developed technology and industry belong to the capitalists who are fighting us.
Lenin, 1921

The lesson of that victory [over fascism in WWII] was that Soviet citizens must still heed Lenin's warning of 1921.
Andrei Grechko after World War II

Oh, the times are long gone. Capitalism has crushed the Soviet Union. As Andrei Grechko wisely said (probably after the Prague 1968): "Liberalization and democratization are in essence counter-revolution."

The real moon hoax

Studying declassified Corona spy satellite photographs, Vick is able to show that there was substantial unexplained activity at the Baikonur cosmodrome during December 1968. Although no photographs exist during the 8-12 December launch window, images made during a pass on 15 December show a Soyuz spacecraft - booster combination mounted on its pad and the Proton pad gantry in position, although no booster is mounted. A week later, the Soyuz booster is being removed from its pad, but now a Proton - L1 combination is on the Proton pad. This seems to clearly indicate that attempts were being made, right up to and beyond the day Apollo 8 was launched, to beat the Americans to the moon. The authors theorise that an attempt at a manned launch to the moon using the two-launch podsadka scenario was attempted, but that some serious spacecraft problem must have resulted in the Proton launch being scrubbed.

So all these years the Ruskies said "No, no, comrade, we never planed to go to the moon, I swear on Lenin's tomb!", and they were almost there to go to the moon BEFORE the Yankees.

Interestingly, they had not one manned moon flight program, no, they had TWO manned moon flight programs. One was run by Korolev (and then after his death by Mishin) using Soyuz-spacecraft and N1 rockets, the other was run by Chelomei using a Soyuz variant and Proton rockets. Both ran into problems with, both with their spacecraft, both with their rockets. The Soyuz capsules were too heavy for a N1 single-shot-mission (and anyway delayed), the N1-rocket was not reliable, Soyuz-1 failed killing its Kosmonaut, the Proton looked promising (and is one of the backbones of Russia's space industry today) but ran into reliability problems. So Korolev's team aimed for a "bastard" version, using Proton and Soyuz/R7s for a two-launch mission with prior docking in LEO. Well, it didn't work – the rest, you know.