In the late 70s, OKB-52 head Vladimir Chelomey decided to try and compete with the new Buran space shuttle project. He did it in secret, with stolen funds, and against express orders from the Kremlin. Today, we're talking with space history youtuber Alexander The OK about how it all somehow went wrong.

Watch Alex's content here!

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SOURCES:

- Ahead of his Time, Ivan Evteev

- The Proton Launcher, Christian Lardier and Stefan Berensky

- Energiya-Buran, Bart Hendrickz

- Raketoplan, RussianSpaceWeb

- LKS, RussianSpaceWeb

- Vladimir Chelomei, False Steps

FTL theme song by DJ Danarchy

Chelomey's LKS Shuttle (w. Alexander The OK)