NASA HL-20 lifting body

Mostly right, except for THIS

It was from the USSR Cold War era space interceptor, the Uragan ("Hurricane")

This never existed, and has been long debunked as a blunder by the CIA, that single-handedly invented a spacecraft and a mission (space interceptor) that never existed in the first place.
The BOR-4 and Avion 105 were the offsprings of the Spiral program (1965 - 1977) where the lifting body was stuck to an expendable NK-33 powered rocket booster, itself attached to a mach 5 airbreathing piloted aircraft. The later was later dropped for an An-124, then the An-225, and evolved into System 49, Bizan, and finally MAKS, the tripropellant air launched mini-shuttle.
 
"Spiral" was the early name, for what they later resurrected as Uragan, correct? For them, it never progressed beyond that, before the succession of other planes up to the Buran and then MAKS as the intended survivor.
What mistake did the CIA make? Calling it a space interceptor in the '60s instead of a single-orbit bomber in the '80s?
Small matter of difference. They envisaged it with nuclear missiles for targets in the North Atlantic for instance, so it could presumably have functioned as either.

The fact remains that the USSR early-on did work on a small manned military spaceplane for which the MiG-105 flew tests, and the BOR-4 was a remainder of it, later flown to test TPS for the Buran. That test was the origin of the HL-20 and Dream Chaser


http://www.russianspaceweb.com/spiral_development.html
 
John Frazer said:
"Spiral" was the early name, for what they later resurrected as Uragan, correct?
Not. It never 'resurrected as Uragan'.
 
I seem to remember one in a parachute test where one came down on a dirt road.
 

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