Russian Space Shuttle program Tomb

[hotspur]

This may have been posted before on IIS,so sorry in advance if it has.

http://petapixel.com/2015/06/14/photographer-captures-the-ruins-of-the-soviet-space-shuttle-program/

But,really what a sad sight in many ways the photographer must have felt like a explorer in an Egyptian tomb a 100 years ago.

The photographer has presented some amazing images.

[pluto]

Very nice, thanks for posting :)

A few years ago I was fortunate to come across the amazing Buran engineering article that lives in Gorky Park. It was a great experience because it was completely unexpected and even though I had sought out Russian/Soviet space sights to see while I was in Moscow I hadn't heard of the Buran in Gorky Park. We were just walking to some gallery my GF wanted to see and I spotted it off in the distance - startled my GF when I frantically started pointing and yelling "Buran!!!!!" :D
Pics here (https://hughsblog.wordpress.com/2013/03/13/buran-in-gorky-park/).

[hotspur]

great pics Hugh.:thumbsup:

Does seem the program never really got going,with only one remote flight in 1988,and closed down in 1993.The Buran looks a little smaller than its U.S version.

Seems such a waste on so many levels.

[pluto]

The Buran is much smaller than the Shuttle. From what I've read the Soviets didn't really need it but it was made primarily so that they could match capabilities with the US - sort of: are we missing something? better build one just in case.
It was well designed though and in many ways could have been better than the US shuttle, even the fact that the single flight was remotely controlled is something that the STS wasn't capable of. Of course being much smaller it wouldn't have been as capable at orbital delivery as the Shuttle and wouldn't have been able to carry something as large as the HST or Galileo but still would have been useful for matching the Shuttles cross range ability - important if you want to launch, complete one orbit, and then land at the same place.

[hotspur]

Sounds good Hugh,I never really knew much about Buran,except that is was smaller and heard it said it could have been better in quite a few ways over the U.S version.Such a shame neither is working at all and whats left just sits around gathering dust.Wonder if China will ever make a version-they appear to have coin and minds to do it.

[LewisM]

The Buran also had the capability to take off and fly training flights with a crew - a special training variant had turbojets mounted and was thus even better than NASA simulators (either the converted Gulfstream or the computer full motion simulator. It was even shown on Beyond 2000 all those years ago.

Link: http://www.astronautix.com/craft/burlogue.htm

[Slawomir]

Abandoning Buran and closing down of Space Shuttle program in some ways suggests that progress for our humanity is not necessarily of continuous nature and perhaps there are times when things "degenerate" or when we loose capacity to do some things. I know that mobile phones get smaller and smarter each year, or that the Internet gets faster, but who cares? What about meaningful activities such as space exploration?

[Wavytone]

Chris, Slawomir... you're probably not aware one of the two Burans was brought here on a barge and on display at Darling Harbour for some years near Star Casino. I went to see it but found it somewhat disappointing - didn't keep any photos.

When the Soviet Union disintegrated the russkies were so broke they couldn't afford the freight to get it back to the motherland, and couldn't pay the rent owed at Darling Harbour. In the end the Darling Harbour Authority took possession in lieu of the debts and auctioned it on eBay... the asking price was a mere $1M but AFAIK they didn't get that much - the buyer had to take it away (ahem). It's probably rotting in a paddock somewhere as a kids plaything.

At the same time they had two cosmonauts stuck in orbit and they had to call on NASA to send the Shuttle to collect them.

It does rather imply the Soviet space program imploded in the 1980's for the simpler reason they were quite literally broke.

[hotspur]

goodness! what a head spinner! I never knew any of that.The mind boggles as to where it ended up,I can just see it in my mind in a scrap yard with old NSWGR loco's and rolling stock.....

Interesting to read the early comments about the Russian thinking,of how they thought they should have a shuttle version,even though they did not really need it.Been an interesting thread to learn something of these Burans.That it only had one flight via remote control,to operate it via remote control is really quite an achievement.

[LewisM]

That was the Buran Analogue, and it was no longer Russian owned then - it was sold to an Australian company headed by our own astronaut Paul Scully-Powers.

The Buran Analogue is alive and well looked after now in Germany.

https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=OK-GLI