Ruins of the Soviet space shuttle program

[Arachno 1D]

 

The ghostly spacecrafts are thought to have been part of the Soviets' Buran Program, which began in 1974 and was discontinued in 1993.

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Only one of the reusable Buran shuttles ever made it into space, in 1988, but it was destroyed when the hangar it was housed in collapsed in 2002. Meanwhile, these two prototypes have been left to accumulate dust in the desert steppes of Kazakhstan.

 

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That's not to say the entire Baikonur Cosmodrome site is in such a decaying state. In fact, this hangar is just a few kilometers from the launchpad where cosmonaut Yuri Gagrin became the first person to fly into space in 1961 -- a launchpad that is still in use today.

 

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After years of neglect, the insides of the shuttles were in disarray.

 

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Mirebs, a 36-year-old Russian lecturer in computer programming, said the hangar "wasn't locked, and there were no people inside."

 

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A glimpse inside the cockpit.

 

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"I would like to see the hangar, with shuttles and equipment inside, become a museum," said Mirebs.

 

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As for how Mirebs managed to get access to Baikonur Cosmodrome, the swift answer was "Let it remain secret."

 

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It wasn't the only treasure trove of awesome rusty relics Mirebs found. "Next to the shuttle hangar, there is another abandoned building housing the test model Energy-M space rocket," he said.

 

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"There is a sense of mystery in these places," added the 36-year-old. "You never know what is waiting for you around the next corner or through the next door."

 

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Mirebs points his camera down the length of the rocket, giving us a rare glimpse of a magnificent relic from another era.

 

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"These are places where you can touch history. There are no restrictions; it's just you and the ruin," he said.

 

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Mirebs had an idea that the remarkable spacecraft were inside these buildings, but he had no idea what state they'd be in.

 

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Perhaps the fascination with these photographs is in seeing mighty feats of engineering bowing to the power of mother nature and time. And decades after they were laid to rest, they are still an out-of-this-world sight.

 

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Photographer discovers treasure trove in Baikonur Cosmodrome 15 photos

It's hard to imagine now, but this derelict shuttle was once at the gleaming forefront of the Soviet space program. It was one of a number of dilapidated spacecraft found at the Baikonur Cosmodrome site in Kazakhstan by urban explorer

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/03/travel/baikonur-cosmodrome-kazakhstan-soviet-space-shuttle/index.html

[+Random Stranger Subscriber¹]

RIP.  

 

I remember about Buran.

 

 

This will make a great location for a movie or a video game.

 

 

 

 

There is soo much stuff, that was abandoned all over the place (in many countries... i enjoy reading about abandoned relics of the past) it makes me a bit sad. 

really... they could have made something out of it -  but, in most cases, the trouble comes unexpected, so the owners just dump the stuff, no matter how valuable it is, now, or for future generations!

[+Warwagon MVC]

Is it just me or does anyone else want to boot that system up in the shuttle?

[Draggendrop Veteran]

The Buran is one of my favorites........it just had the misfortune of global politics............

 

More goodies on a prior thread....

https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1260022-for-sale-2-russian-space-shuttles-going-cheap/

 

Good scoop on the photo's arachnoid.......

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Rare video footage collection of Buran take off and landing.....

 

 

1989 Paris airshow....

 

 

This video shows the hanger an massive erector....awsome......

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Here is a nice flight shot......

 

 

Couldn't help myself....check out these puppies.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Arachno 1D]

There seems to be a lot of dilapidation between these shots and those from the other link I guess no one has even been near it in years.So what plan did the Russians have for the vessel had it actually been put into service?

[Draggendrop Veteran]

There seems to be a lot of dilapidation between these shots and those from the other link I guess no one has even been near it in years.So what plan did the Russians have for the vessel had it actually been put into service?

The guy's were talking about that in the other thread. Version 1.01, the one that flew, was destroyed in the hanger collapse that also took lives. Version 1.02 was approximately 90 % complete and I believe there were three "test fixtures" for prototyping...shells basically, not flight worthy. One went to a museum that was pointed out to me in the other thread, I will try to find out which one....Cheers....

 

Edit...Check out FunkyMike's post in other thread...he explains the museum one......

[123456789A]

Why does it look so similar to the US space shuttle?

[Jim K Global Moderator]

There seems to be a lot of dilapidation between these shots and those from the other link I guess no one has even been near it in years.So what plan did the Russians have for the vessel had it actually been put into service?

 

Mostly military like deployment and resupply of spy/antisatellite and antimissile platforms..  

 

It was also going to be used to build the Mir-2 (some of these modules built for Mir-2 were incorporated into the ISS).

[Dot Matrix]

Why does it look so similar to the US space shuttle?

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Why does it look so similar to the US space shuttle?

This would be just my opinion......Engineering form of function.....The shuttle was a great functional design....a reentry capable vehicle...one that can glide and land on a runway...massive cargo bay....in orbit thrusters for movement......Other than appearance, the Buran was its own design.

 

A quote of a post I made in the other thread...

 

This is real sad........The Buran was very special...it may have looked like the U.S. Shuttle....but that is where it ends...The Buran used liquid boosters, had detachable flight engines and could carry 3X's the payload.....it's engines were what founded Russia's Energia...killed off by the end of the cold war and political restructuring.......

 

Hope this helps...Cheers...

[Blue-Vision]

Yep, what DD said. The Russian Shuttles were their own breed. The only thing they had in common (roughly speaking) was appearance. The Buran-Class were actually larger shuttles than the U.S. "Columbia-Class" ones, with wider Cargo Bays, and were quite heavy compared to the U.S. Shuttles. The tail section was taller, the nose was longer, larger wingspan, flight characteristics were different, and Buran could be remote-piloted. It took much more grunt to get them off the ground, and more grunt to stop them once they landed (thus the three-parachutes).

 

Think of the Buran-Class Shuttles as a version 1.5 design, compared to the 1.0 design of Columbia/Challenger/Discovery and the 1.1 design of Atlantis/Endeavour. The upgrades performed on the U.S. Shuttles after the Challenger accident brought them up to the 1.2 specification; and small, continual upgrades afterward would eventually get them to 1.25 until they were retired.

 

Buran-Class was quite an evolution, from an Engineering and Technical standpoint, and had a lot of capabilities that the U.S. Shuttles didn't. Buran was also designed and developed a full ten to twelve years after the Columbia-Class Shuttles, and benefited from much better design practices, technology, and engineering by comparison (due to the march of progress).

 

Was it perfect? Of course not -- but it had just as bright a future as the U.S. Shuttle program did, if not for the complete and utter upheaval that was about to befall the Soviet Union (and had already begun).

[HawkMan]

 

2030589774_00a8ad4e86.jpg

 

I guess this demonstrates the same principle in how america developed a special space pen while the russian used a pencil. American made a giant unwieldy tracked monster to move their shuttles and rockets. Russia ladi tracks and used to regular train engines

This would be just my opinion......Engineering form of function.....The shuttle was a great functional design....a reentry capable vehicle...one that can glide and land on a runway...massive cargo bay....in orbit thrusters for movement......Other than appearance, the Buran was its own design.

 

A quote of a post I made in the other thread...

 

This is real sad........The Buran was very special...it may have looked like the U.S. Shuttle....but that is where it ends...The Buran used liquid boosters, had detachable flight engines and could carry 3X's the payload.....it's engines were what founded Russia's Energia...killed off by the end of the cold war and political restructuring.......

 

Hope this helps...Cheers...

 

I believe the Buran was also semi autonomous and could launch deploy without a crew, maybe even dock. 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

I guess this demonstrates the same principle in how america developed a special space pen while the russian used a pencil. American made a giant unwieldy tracked monster to move their shuttles and rockets. Russia ladi tracks and used to regular train engines

 

I believe the Buran was also semi autonomous and could launch deploy without a crew, maybe even dock. 

Quite correct......

 

 

The only orbital launch of a Buran-class orbiter occurred at 3:00 UTC on 15 November 1988 from Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad 110/37. OK-1K1 was lifted into space, on an unmanned mission, by the specially designed Energia rocket. The automated launch sequence performed as specified, and the Energia rocket lifted the vehicle into a temporary orbit before the orbiter separated as programmed. After boosting itself to a higher orbit and completing two revolutions around the Earth, ODU (engine control system) engines fired automatically to begin the descent into the atmosphere.

Exactly 206 minutes[4] into the mission, Orbiter OK-1K1 landed, having lost only eight of its 38,000 thermal tiles over the course of the flight.[5] The automated landing took place on a runway at Baikonur Cosmodrome where, despite a lateral wind speed of 61.2 kilometres per hour (38.0 mph), it landed only 3 metres (9.8 ft) laterally and 10 metres (33 ft) longitudinally from the target mark.[4] Specifically, as Buran approached Baikonur Cosmodrome and started landing, spacecraft sensors detected the strong crosswind and "the robotic system sent the huge machine for another rectangular traffic pattern approach, successfully landing the spacecraft on a second try."[5] It was the first space shuttle to perform an unmanned flight, including landing in fully automatic mode.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_(spacecraft)

 

Cheers.......