[NGTM-1R]

There are a lot of ways to get back dead...Russia lost some people once when a valve blew and vented their atmosphere just prior to reentry. That's how we know your body isn't going to turn inside out or some other silly sci-fi thing when you're in a vacuum.

[CmdKewin]

The Russians did try to have a shuttle, but that was in the days of SSSR (or CCCP, as it's written in cyrillic letters) - but it actualyl cost quite a bit of money. It was called "Buran" and it's budget was HUGE - actually, it is somewhere referred to as one of the main reasons for Soviet Union's collapse.

The big military bugdet had an impact on the eventual collapse. But the trend of over spending had been going on for years (as it was and still in in the US). And to say that the CCCP collapsed because of the Buran Program would be quite of an exageration...

[WMCoolmon]

There are a lot of ways to get back dead...Russia lost some people once when a valve blew and vented their atmosphere just prior to reentry. That's how we know your body isn't going to turn inside out or some other silly sci-fi thing when you're in a vacuum.

They had pictures/video of it?

EDIT:

1971 June 30: crew exposed to vacuum of space : The crew of Soyuz 11, Georgi Dobrovolski, Viktor Patsayev and Vladislav Volkov, were killed after undocking from space station Salyut 1 after a three-week stay. A valve on their spacecraft had accidentally opened when the service module separated, letting their air leak out into space. The capsule reentered and landed normally, and their deaths were only discovered when it was opened by the recovery team.

Ahh...

[Colonol Dekker]

I'm surprised they didn't go Boom after liftoff. There were pieces of that foam coming off all around that damn thing and NASA still decided to risk the astronauts lives.

Its just the way Command is.............

[Col. Fishguts]

The Russians did try to have a shuttle, but that was in the days of SSSR (or CCCP, as it's written in cyrillic letters) - but it actualyl cost quite a bit of money. It was called "Buran" and it's budget was HUGE - actually, it is somewhere referred to as one of the main reasons for Soviet Union's collapse.

While Buran is collecting dust, the Russians developed a new shuttle, the Kliper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kliper

If they ever get enough money to put it in space is another question.

[Colonol Dekker]

I gotta say my ussian is poor at best, but this looks bloody cool...
http://www.buran.ru/htm/spiral.htm

[CmdKewin]

The entire Buran.ru site is available in english too.

http://www.buran.ru/htm/molniya.htm

[Colonol Dekker]

That spiral project looks a bit Captain scarlet-Angel interceptor'ish but i reckon thats the way it should be done. If only i had about 400 billion to research the thing and build a squadron.......

[Charismatic]

There were pieces of that foam coming off all around that damn thing and NASA still decided to risk the astronauts lives.

Its just the way Command is.............

Best statement in the whole thread. Also: LOLOL!

True, true, all so true.