US and Soviet space tech, etc

Indeed I've learned again from the posts here. The Buran had some
good ideas, it appears, and they did run out of money. Of course,
look at what is happening to the US space program... Shuttle flight
cutbacks, ISS cutbacks (in spite of agreements we signed with our
international partners). We should double our space budget, IMHO,
and maybe take some of that from the bloated pentagon budget.

Russian space tech did come up with a series of Salyuts and MIR,
and their life support systems on Zarya (?)module are helping the ISS
crew breathe today. The Progress freighters were a nice touch, fully
automated resupply craft (better than our modules that need a
Shuttle). I was just making a point in my previous post, that the US
at least did field a different, partly-reusable space transport
system beginning in 1981 that no other nation was able to match. OK,
enough of the drum-beating nationalism. Today, we all have to work
together.

I would take the aformentioned $100 million and put it into a
new, novel launch system. Better, yet, we need to build a space
elevator. if we can string telephone cables across 3,000 miles of
ocean, then surely, surely we can string one from here to LEO.
Someone will do it, only a matter of time.

FYI, check out the latest Discover magazine for a great article on
X-prize contenders!