https://jalopnik.com/did-the-soviets-build-a-better-shuttle-than-we-did-1713379466

"The Soviet Energia-Buran system did have some real technical advantages over the NASA Space Shuttle program. But, NASA did manage to do a hell of a lot more with their program, like, you know, actually going to space and doing interesting things. In an ideal world, there would have been cooperation, and perhaps US orbiters could have been retrofitted to work with Energia launchers, and perhaps we’d even have been able to use Energia rockets for Mars missions and and and we’d have permanent lunar bases and Space Unicorns and Infinite Energy satellites that run on rainbows and love and and and...

Sorry. I guess that’s just not the way the world works."