Birds of a Feather?

Birds of a Feather? How Politics and Culture Affected the Designs of the U.S. Space Shuttle and the Soviet Buran. This work by Stephen J. Garber is very interesting because it shows the evolution of the orbital planes conception from the American and Soviet side as well as the various political and technical choices which led to such solution. Furthermore it shows clearly that the development of Buran was not due to a scientific need but indeed to balance the military forces between the 2 sides.