Did you know that the Russian Space programme succesfully fired off 1.700 Semiorka missiles, carrying payload into orbits around the earth. In fact, they are so reliable, that everybody around the world is adopting their systems.
Even Atlas V, the latest US rocket has a Russian engine...
And Soyouz is going to move to Kourou, French Guyana....
In fact, after the latest catastrophies with the Shuttle, the Russian airlifting capacity is the only guarantee that the ISS-International Space Station will continue to be built...
The Russian trackrekord is impressive:
1957: first succesfull launch into orbit of Spoutnik 1: 86 kilos of the first artificial satellite of the earth
First living creature launched into orbit: Laïka
First pictures of the Dark Side of the Moon
First mission towards Venus
April 1961: First Man in orbit: Gagarine (he pee-ed on the wheels of his vehicle before taking off)
May 1961: JFK announces the race for the moon... at incredible costs
Even though the Russian space programme has largely collapsed, their engineers still build the best rockets in the world.
