The KSS's Atmoshperic Space Shuttle

In June 1978, the KSS learned about the western space shuttle. After some classified documents were
leaked to the KSS government, the leaders of the KSS's space program, called the CCCP at the time,
began work on their own copycat shuttle, which would be much better than the western
shuttle, to proove that the KSS was truly "better". This however, wasnt actually true.

Despite this, the KSS put ~2 billion in funding. This was actually over what they needed to
built the first 3 units of the shuttle. After some planning, they decided to use the recently
produced 'Компьютер' (Computer) and compress it down to fit inside of the cockpit of the shuttle.
After 7 years in development, the first ever production model rolled out onto the tarmac.
It was named "Круиз", meaning "Cruise". It was called this because it was designed to test
the atmospheric and flight capability of the shuttle. It was desginated "OK-GLI", and preformed
test flights around the Kosmodrome.



After a series of multiple test flights, it was proven to be incredibly areodrynamic, and
despite it being under jet power, it was proven that it would be manuverable enough to
properly land at the Kosmodrome after multiple flights.

But there was one problem. How do we actually get such a large and heavy spacecraft
into orbit?
Introducing the РОТАНЕВ, a moon rocket that was designed in the 1960's during the height
of the space race, but was never used, as the west got to the moon first. It's blueprints were
ressureced from the grave, and production on a LKO (Low Kerbin Orbit) variant began.



After 2 years in development and many, many redesigns, the ротанев was finally ready to be
launched. But the OK-GLI wasn't designed for being launched into space, it had no onboard
pressuration, as it was a prototype and nothing else.

Now began the actual shuttle that would be launched. They took the basic design of the OK-GLI,
redesigned it with proper thermal tiling, reduced some weight, installed its rocket engines,
added its nameplate and finally added its internal computer. The on-board internal computer
was so over-engineered, that the shuttle could takeoff, put payloads into orbit, and land
all by itself, with no human input. It was designated "OK-1.01", and given the infamous name,
"Angel". It took flight on November 16th, 1986, with no human onboard, to show its outstanding
technology. It took flight before the western shuttle even had a chance to have its name chosen.



After a 2-day long test flight, the OK-1.01 landed successfully at the Kosmodrome on November 18th,
1986. It landed in a sunny afternoon, with a crowd of people astonished and cheering for the new era
of the space race.