November 15,
1988 marks the first — and sadly the last — flight of the Energia-Buran space
system, the rival to the U.S. Space Shuttle.
I had the privilege of working on that program — one of the early and
remarkably successful complex autonomous systems — an extraordinary engineering
effort whose legacy still inspires me today and serves as a powerful reminder
of what dedicated engineering teams can achieve, and what is sometimes lost.
