37 years ago

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.