Re:Core Problem: Lack of Competition in Space (Score 1)

You took my statement out of context, I wasn't specifically referring to their space program's successes vs. their failures, but rather why Russian engineering has seldom relied on State of the Art technology in its implementation. You're looking at the result, whereas I'm looking at the process, and involved components. Perhaps the Russians have tons of gee-whiz techno-geekery all designed and ready to go but they just can't afford to build it, but I'm assuming it's more likely that they have fallen behind in computing, materials, and other bleeding edge-technological fields.