Russia copied our shuttles, and they still use them.
Nope. Baseless claim.
In 1988, the Russian's
only shuttle, the Buran made its one and only flight. That it was copied from the US equivalent was nothing more than
an urban myth (which you too have swallowed). The Buran project's chief architect Valentin Glushko did
not blindly copy the US shuttle but instead went through the long and laborious process of determining an original architecture from the ground up.
The Buran used
four main engines compared with the US shuttle's
three, and these engines were placed into a
separate rocket stage, rather than
on the winged orbiter itself, as was the case with the US shuttle.
The Buran could transport up to
95 tons of equipment (because of its disposable main engines) whereas the US shuttles could only carry a
25 ton payload. Ironically, it was the Americans who attempted to reverse engineer the Russian's later Energia design with their Shuttle-C project (which never got off the ground LOL).
Many aerospace engineers today say that the Russians actually built a better system than the US did at that time. Ouch!
—And you're welcome.