Moving towards approval

Whatever the motives, by the middle of 1975 a number of joint meetings between officials of the Ministry of General Machine Building and the Ministry of Defense resulted in a Soviet shuttle taking center stage in future plans for the country’s piloted space program. There seems to have been particular pressure from GUKOS, headed at the time by Andrey Karas. The consensus by now was also that the vehicle should be similar in size to the Space Shuttle in order to respond to whatever threat the

American vehicle would eventually pose. It was also felt that the time needed to develop a big or small shuttle wouldn’t be too different anyway.

From an economic and operational viewpoint, there was clearly no immediate need for the Soviet Union to build a shuttle, but in times of almost limitless budgets for defense-related programs any such considerations were easily outweighed by military arguments. Still, there was much division in the industry, mainly within NPO Energiya, on the need to press ahead. Therefore, GUKOS ordered the TsNII-50 research institute to perform a study of the military potential of such a system. Strangely enough, TsNII-50 head Gennadiy Melnikov, wishing to satisfy both camps, ordered preparation of two reports, one confirming the need to build a Shuttle equivalent, and the other demonstrating there was no need for such a system. The negative report was sent to the opponents of the reusable spacecraft and the positive report to the proponents. Eventually, however, both reports landed on the desk of Dmitriy Ustinov, who was dismayed to learn that two contradictory reports had been prepared by one and the same institute. Ustinov subsequently summoned Glushko to his office to clarify the situation, but Glushko, still not enthusiastic about a shuttle program, instead decided to send Valeriy Burdakov.

Burdakov, an avid shuttle supporter, had headed the shuttle team under Mishin, but after Glushko’s arrival had been demoted to a position under shuttle chief designer Sadovskiy. Glushko’s decision not to go himself and not even send Sadovskiy was his way of showing his lack of interest in the program, but it apparently had a boomerang effect. Burdakov and Ustinov talked at length about reusable spacecraft, with Ustinov showing particular interest in the military applica­tions of such systems. Asked about the goals of the US Space Shuttle, Burdakov told Ustinov among other things about its capability to place giant laser complexes into orbit. The two agreed that much of the N-l infrastructure at Baykonur (mainly the giant N-l assembly building and the two launch pads) could be modified for use by a reusable spacecraft. The conversation ended with Ustinov ordering Sadovskiy’s department to draw up a detailed report outlining the possible designs, missions, and operational aspects of a Soviet reusable space system [21].

Given Ustinov’s influence, this order was more than a trivial matter and a considerable step on the road to final approval of a Soviet shuttle system. In

September 1975 Ustinov convened a meeting at NPO Energiya, where it was agreed to speed up the release of a government and party decree on such a system, seen as the official endorsement of the program and the go-ahead to actually design and build the hardware [22]. In a letter dated 21 December 1975, KGB chief Yuriy Andropov once again reminded Ustinov of the Space Shuttle’s military capabilities, emphasizing that its 30-ton payload capacity allowed it to orbit big spy satellites and space-to – ground weapons [23]. Roald Sagdeyev confirms Ustinov’s role in the final decision to build a Space Shuttle equivalent:

“I heard that [Buran] was adopted mainly due to insistence from Ustinov, who had made the following argument: if our scientists and engineers do not see any specific use of this technology now, we should not forget that the Americans are very pragmatic and very smart. Since they have invested a tremendous amount of money in such a project, they can obviously see some useful scenarios that are still unseen from Soviet eyes. The Soviet Union should develop such a technol­ogy, so that it won’t be taken by surprise in the future’’ [24].