kvs wrote:Once there is a military application, Russia starts serious investigation. The USSR made the Buran because of the Shuttle's potential military
use. But the Buran concept was not merely a copy but was forming from the 1960s. This small variant seems to be a continuation of
the same general program. I am not seeing the great utility myself.
Same, but I put it down to a general desire to match capabilities. One never really knows which technologies will pan out as useful, and which will collapse into useless obscurity. The jury is out IMHO as to whether these reuseables min-shuttles have much utility that more conventional systems can't deliver, but its best to follow and develop domestic equivalents, even if only as a hedge.