On Mar 9, 5:50*pm, Jochem Huhmann wrote:
Pat Flannery writes:
..

Energia was named Energia ("Energy") because it was sold to the Soviet
people as a means of building solar power stations in Earth orbit.



Sorry to start off a little OT here, but the Soviet dictatorship never
*had* to "sell" anything to its people. However, even dictators like
good PR if they can have it, and the Cold War Space Race was a lot
about prestige and propaganda. Most Russians are undoubtably glad that
the USSR was the first into space, even if they aren't thrilled about
things like Stalin intentionally starving to death 7 million people in
the Ukraine, and other wonders of the history of the USSR and other
enemies of America.

In any case, the idea that Energia was intended for putting solar
power stations in orbit is pretty interesting, if true. In one sense,
too bad they didn't get a SPS going. Dictatorships don't have to worry
about public opinion on how they are spending the country's resources.
But they DO face the realities of resource limitations. If the Soviets
had been interested in space instead of military - reports are they
spent up to 90% of their country's GNP on military - they could have
done one or major, major space achievements. No one existed who was
going to argue with the Kremlin's decisions!

Can you imagine if the Soviet dictatorship had not only kept Energia
or another HLV system, but had decided to use it to permanently
colonize the Moon, or for Mars? BTW, there were rumors in the U.S., in
the 1980s, that a Soviet manned Mars mission was in the works. In a
sense, too bad these rumors turned out to be false!