Buran (spacecraft)

Buran
Russian: Буран

Buran on Launch Pad
Country Soviet Union
Named after "Snowstorm"[1]
Status Decommissioned,Buran #1 Collapsed due to poor quality.Buran #2 Destroyed in hanger collapse in 2002.Buran #3 On display at the Technikmuseum Speyer of Germany.
First flight 1K1
15 November 1988[1]
Last flight 1K1
15 November 1988[1]
Number of missions 1[1]
Crews 0[1]
Time spent in space 3 hours
Number of orbits 2[1]
In 2008, Buran analogue (aero test model) being transported to the Technikmuseum Speyer of Germany, where it will serve as walk-in exhibition

The Buran spacecraft (Russian: Буран, "Snowstorm" or "Blizzard"), GRAU index 11F35 K1, was the only fully completed and operational space shuttle vehicle from the Soviet Buran program. With a design that borrowed heavily from the American Space Shuttle, the Buran completed one unmanned spaceflight in 1988 before cancellation of the Soviet shuttle program in 1993. The Buran was subsequently destroyed by a hangar collapse in 2002.

Like its American counterpart, the Buran, when in transit from its landing sites back to the launch complex, was transported on the back of a large jet aeroplane. It was piggy-backed on the Antonov An-225 Mriya aircraft, which was designed for this task and remains the largest aircraft in the world.

Several shuttles were produced. One of those, the OK-GLI, was modified to fly with jet engines for aerodynamic testing. One painted mock shuttle (the former static test-article OK-TVA) is now a ride simulating space flight in Gorky Park, Moscow. The OK-GLI was sold by its owner NPO Energia, shipped to Sydney in Australia and subsequently displayed at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Shortly after, the new owner went bankrupt and the OK-GLI shuttle then went to Bahrain for a number of years while legal ownership status was in dispute. The Sydney/Bahrain (OK-GLI) shuttle was acquired by the German Technikmuseum Speyer in 2004,[2] and has been transported to the museum, where it is exhibited to the general public.

Contents

First flight

The only orbital launch of the (unmanned) shuttle Buran 1.01 occurred at 3:00 UTC on 15 November 1988. It was lifted into orbit by the specially designed Energia booster rocket. The life support system was partially installed and no software was installed to run the computer display screens.[1]

The shuttle orbited the Earth twice in 206 minutes of flight.[3] On its return, it performed an automated landing on the shuttle runway at Baikonur Cosmodrome, where despite a lateral wind speed of 61.2 kilometres (38.0 mi) /hour it made a successful landing only 3 metres (9.8 ft) laterally and 10 metres (33 ft) longitudinally from the target.[3]

Video

Part of the launch was televised, but the actual lift-off was not shown. This led to some speculation that the mission may have been fabricated, and that the subsequent landing may not have been from orbit but from a shuttle-carrying aircraft, as with the Space Shuttle Enterprise. Since then, the launch video has been released to the public, confirming that the shuttle did indeed lift off, with the poor weather conditions described by the Soviet media at the time easily seen.[4]

Projected flights

In 1989, it was projected that Buran would have an unmanned second flight in 1993, with a duration of 15–20 days.[5] Due to the cancellation of the project, this never took place. Several scientists have been looking into trying to revive the Buran program, especially after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.[6] None of these plans have come to further fruition however.

Destruction

On May 12, 2002, a hangar housing a Buran 1.01 orbiter (the actual Buran that flew in 1988) collapsed due to poor maintenance in Kazakhstan. The collapse killed eight workers and destroyed the orbiter as well as a mock-up of an Energia booster rocket. Object 1.01 was a property of Kazakhstan. [7]

Photos

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 "Buran". NASA (12 November 1997). Retrieved on 2006-08-15.
  2. ↑ http://www.technik-museum.de/buran/
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chertok, Boris (2005). Asif A. Siddiqi. ed. (PDF). Raketi i lyudi (trans. "Rockets and People"). NASA History Series. pp. 179. http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20050010181_2005010059.pdf. Retrieved on 2006-07-03. 
  4. ↑ "Video: Soviet Shuttle Buran Launch". vunet.ru. Retrieved on 2006-09-13.
  5. ↑ "Экипажи "Бурана" Несбывшиеся планы.". buran.ru. Retrieved on 2006-08-05. (Russian)
  6. ↑ Birch, Douglas (2003). "Russian space program is handed new responsibility" (url). Sun Foreign Staff. Retrieved on 2008-10-17.
  7. ↑ Whitehouse, David (2002-05-13). "Russia's space dreams abandoned", bbc.co.uk, BBC. Retrieved on 2007-11-14. 

Further reading

External links


Buran program
Components
Energia · Mir · Kvant-1 · Kvant-2 · Kristall · Androgynous Peripheral Attach System
Orbiters
Buran (Shuttle 1.01) · Ptichka (Shuttle 1.02) · Baikal (Shuttle 2.01) · Shuttle 2.02 · Shuttle 2.03
Launch site
Testing
OK-ML-1 (OK-M) · OK-KS (003) · OK-ML-2 (OK-MT) · OK-GLI (Buran Analog aerotester) · OK-??? (Model 005?) · OK-TVI · OK-??? (Model 008?) · OK-TVA · BOR-4 · BOR-5
Space Shuttles
Space shuttle US.jpg American US Space Shuttle program   Soviet Soviet Buran program
Space shuttle USSR.jpg
  • OK-GLI (Buran Analog BST-02, aerotester)
  • Buran (Shuttle 1.01, destroyed 2002)
  • Ptichka (Shuttle 1.02, 95–97% completed)
  • Baikal (Shuttle 2.01, incomplete)
  • 2.02 (partially dismantled)
  • 2.03 (dismantled)