Mathias Rust Square was jokingly referred to by Muscovites as Sheremetyevo-3 (Sheremetyevo-1 and -2 being the two terminals at Moscow's main international airport). At the end of 1987, the police radio code used by law enforcement officers in Moscow was allegedly updated to include a code for an aircraft landing. Shortly after the incident, SubLogic, the original publishers of the "Flight Simulator" franchise, issued a scenery disk that expanded the original program's coverage area to include the Eastern Bloc. A challenge in the expansion pack was to land in Red Square as Rust had just done. Following the 20th anniversary of his
Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land chase plane is also visible. There are strong similarities to the novel "Orbit" by Thomas Block (1982), whose "Star Streak" aircraft was jet-and-rocket powered and intended for high-atmospheric flight, only to end up in space. However, there are also important differences. In "Orbit", the failure to shut down engines, requiring entry into space lest it burn up, was deliberate sabotage rather than accident; the aircraft returns without Shuttle assistance "ploughing" the way; and the Shuttle mission sent to bring the passengers oxygen fails to launch at all. "The New York Times" said "Starflight: The Plane That Couldn’t Land" was "...