• just_another_person@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    Nah, it goes WAY back to pre-WW2. Russia basically made copying everyone else’s technology a major economic driver for them for decades, and it was all based around trying to sucker poorer countries into buying their awful products.

    Cameras, radios, cars, weapons. Hell they even stole NASA Space Shuttle designs and tech to build their own, which just ended up in a junkyard.

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      14 hours ago

      And the Buran system was more impressive than the shuttle, capable of completely automated flight!

        • just_another_person@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

          I don’t think it was ever confirmed. They only flew the thing once, which was confirmed. Anything else claiming superior tech I’d call USSR propaganda.

        • catloaf@lemm.ee
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          13 hours ago

          I’m not sure whether the orbital flight counts as test or operational, but that one. The prior test flights only had automated landings.

        • catloaf@lemm.ee
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          9 hours ago

          I’m reading that it orbited at an altitude of up to 263 km, well above the Karman line. Is that not space?