EDITORIAL INFORMATION

When the Soviet Union officially revealed the existence of its space shuttle program in May 1987, it settled one of the longest-standing debates of space exploration. For many years there had been rumors of such a program, but except for the rare unofficial Soviet comments on the advantages of a reusable spacecraft and some hotly debated Western press report, there was no concrete evidence in the open literature.

The Soviet shuttle program had been long in the making, but despite the breakup of the Soviet Union and the unearthing of many previously confidencial documents, a lot remains unknown about its history. This book is an attempt to piece this history together. Although many details are still obscure, now for the first time, a general picture is emerging.

(Extracted from the preface, by the author).

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Acknowledgements.

-Contents.

-Preface.

-Introduction.

-1- Early Soviet Spaceplane Projects.
-2- The Spiral Program.
-3- The VKS Program.
-4- The VKK Program.
-5- VKK Test Flights.
-6- The Energia Launcher.
-7- Transporting VKK Shuttles.
-8- The First Flight of Buran.
-9- Is There a Future for the VKK?

-Appendix-1: EPOS, VKS and VKK Pilot Selections.

-Appendix-2: Pilot Biographies.

OUR REVIEW

Henry Matthews is a true expert in the soviet space program. His book, which includes a very interesting calendar (depicting the rocket-planes of the X series), is an amalgam of information on the soviet shuttle in some instances never published before. It contains the description of precursor programs (Spiral and VKS) and it offers a detailed list of experimental flights up to now kept secret or little known, graphics of the spacecrafts and launcher rockets (Zenit, Proton, Energia), characteristics, etc. Many of the photographs present in the book appear for the first time ever, as well as the identification of many of the cosmonauts that took part in the program VKK, better known after the name of the only vehicle of the series which reached space, the Buran. The book also includes the biographies of the cosmonauts who participated in the different projects described by the author. Up till now it has been very difficult indeed to locate an information source which would join in one single volume what only appeared to be unrelated fragments of this fascinating history. Its publication will no doubt be welcome by the true aficionados to astronautics.

The characteristics of this enterprise might have caused some mistakes to have crept into the text, but - as Matthews himself points out, he expects to solve all possible discrepancies in a future second edition. As a matter of fact, since the publication of the book, several western journalists have had a wider access to the facilities and vehicles of the VKK series, and some dark spots are beginning to appear under a clearer light. What has come to be obvious is the fact that Buran and its successors have already become obsolete. Neither their technology (at a time when the USA are considering the replacement of their own fleet) nor their cost would make their continued use advisable.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this work could be the succint vision of the events which led to the Buran, together with the precursor programs, up till now very little known, as well as the detail of their test flights. All in all, this is a work which fills an intolerably empty spot in the history of astronautics, a work which could perhaps be improved, yet one which is quite fitting as well as useful in any library, while at the same time being an adequate starting point for future research about this program.