Soviet Shuttle to Rise Saturday
The Soviet space shuttle will blast off on its maiden flight Saturday morning, making an unmanned trip into space designed to break the U.S. monopoly on reusable spacecraft, the Tass press agency said today.
“The Energia system is to blast off at 6:23 (a.m.) Moscow time on Oct. 29,” Tass said in its brief dispatch. The delta-winged Soviet shuttle, which looks like its older American cousin, has been in the development stages for years, and space officials here had long promised a launch this year. But they also acknowledged that technical difficulties caused delays.
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