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Buran shuttle1/13/2024 Later, the Antonov An-225 would be outfitted to carry the orbiters, similar to the transport of the US Shuttles by the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA). Final assembly was completed at the MIK-OK at Baikonur. This resulted in the slightly amusing sight of large Buran elements riding atop of the slender looking 3M-T. ( Click here for L2 Photos of her salvage).Īhead of the first launch, elements of the Buran had to be transported as part assembled, based around the mass capabilities of the 3M-T transport plane. After that company went bankrupt the model was later found rusting in a middle eastern desert.Ī group of German tourists found her and fought many legal battles to gain custody of the vehicle to send her to Germany. Ironically, she was originally sold to an Australian company for display at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. OK-GLI’s history was not lost – unlike a lot of the Buran program – after she was salvaged and shipped to her retirement home at the Technikmuseum Speyer in Germany. The test program with OK-GLI involved a huge amount of testing in the air, ranging from November, 1984 – all the way through to April, 1988. However, unlike her Western cousin, OK-GLI had four AL-31 turbofan engines fitted, allowing her to fly under her own power during the test program. Known as the OK-GLI (Buran Analog BST-02), this vehicle was the Soviet version of Shuttle Enterprise, tasked with in-flight testing, as seen via Enterprise’s Approach Landing Tests (ALTs) in the 1970s. * Click here for L2 Video: Buran Test Flights (51 minutes)*Īlso mirroring the American program, construction – which began in 1980 – first involved a full-scale Buran being completed in 1984. The test program for Buran ranged over several years, involving scaled models, wind tunnel testing and other elements that matched the US Shuttle’s development. Instead, Buran hitched the ride to space on the side of the Energia, only using her own two engines – the equivalent of the shuttle’s Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) using GOX/Kerosene propellant – for a 66.7 m/s burn to reach a final the orbit of 251 km x 263 km. Unlike the US Shuttle, the orbiter did not require the three main engines that assisted the American orbiter on her ride uphill. The immense power of the Energia provided a capacity to place about 100 tonnes in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), up to 20 t to the geostationary orbit (GEO) and up to 32 t to a translunar trajectory. The end result was a powerhouse known as the Energia LV – which used four strap-on boosters, each powered by a four-chamber RD-170 engine burning with kerosene/LOX, and a central core stage with four single-chamber RD-0120 (11D122) engines fueled with liquid hydrogen/LOX When faced with the requirement to make a 200mt thrust LOX/LH2 engine, in tandem with reusability, the Soviets decided to ditch the reusable requirement. The Soviets had only built experimental engines, as opposed to the American who had built and operated RL-10 and J-2. However, the Soviet decision to place the main engines on the external tank, as opposed to the orbiter, also stemmed from lack of Soviet experience with LOX/LH2. Lagging behind the United States in their design of large Solid Rocket motors, an early decision was made to utilize liquid propulsion to power the stack off the launch pad. However, there were major departure points, not least on the propulsion side. With Soviet engineers tasked with creating a competitor to the US Shuttle, the basis for Buran resulted in mirroring both the capabilities and design of the US Shuttle, resulting in the two orbiters having a very similar appearance. See AlsoĪs such, Buran was focused as becoming a military asset, which also resulted in the program becoming classified.Īligned with the public knowledge of the US Shuttle’s development program, RKK Energia managed the Buran response from 1974, under the Reusable Space System (MKS) program. The Soviets believed the US Shuttle had a key role in America’s military ambitions and feared the system could even be used to deploy nuclear payloads over Soviet territory. She was destroyed during the collapse of her hanger roof at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in 2002.ĭeveloped by Gleb Lozino-Lozinskiy, Chief Designer at NPO Molniya, Buran was designed to be a direct competitor to the US Space Shuttle. It was to be her only flight in space, with the program mothballed in 1993, following the dissolution of the USSR. Under a veil of secrecy, the Soviet Space Shuttle “Buran” launched on her maiden mission 25 years ago.
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