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Abandoned Soviet Energia rocket in derelict hanger, in pictures
- Boothroid 10y agoSo cool. Also Buran, the first automated shuttle flight. Who knows what might have been.
- shirro 10y agoBefore Buran, Energia launched Polyus. The ominous looking black Russian deathstar satellite. Polyus was rushed and the failure to reach orbit was not due to Energia. I called my laptop polyus. The Russian economy might have collapsed and killed off Buran and the Energia launcher but the engine technology survived so I think images of abandoned Russian rockets probably don't give a balanced impression of their space program. Energia was powered by the four chamber RD-170 engine. Thirty years after Buran, the two chamber variant, the RD-180 powers ULA's very reliable Atlas V which carries a lot of US government payloads to orbit and the single chamber RD-181 variant powers Orbital ATK's new Antares rocket. Good engine designs hang around. SLS is going to fly on a stockpile of saved Shuttle engines. Energia's engines are going to remain a player in US launches until Bezos's Blue Origin get their BE-4 engine to market and vehicles like ULA's Vulcan and Blue Origin's New Glenn are built.