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Abandoned Soviet Space Shuttles [video]
- cbanek 9y agoReminds me of Viceland where they toured the area around Chernobyl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INAlUGn0RYg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INAlUGn0RYg Except this was like a million times more hardcore, and more awesome with space shuttles.
- martythemaniak 9y agoYou can book a flight to Ukraine and go on a tour of Chernobyl yourself. It's kind of a standard tourist thing now, no law-breaking required.
- thesmok 9y agoFor anyone who's actually going there: you have to book the tour 2 weeks ahead because the company that will be taking you there needs to get an entry permission for each visitor.
- winslow 9y agoI expected better from Vice. They were just drunk the entire time and didn't get to see the mutated animals or anything. I wonder why they keep these shuttles abandoned compared to turning them into museum type pieces. Pretty amazing that these awesome machines are just abandoned on a military base.
- winslow 9y agoFor those interested in some video footage of animals in the radioactive zone a decent video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG-nwQBBfmc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG-nwQBBfmc TLDW: No massive mutations like VICE teased with the 3 eyed boars etc.
- marklyon 9y agoI was disappointed to learn it wasn't a difficult place to visit after the kidofspeed girl posted about her (fake) motorcycle tour of the place some years ago. [0] https://chernobylproject.blogspot.com/2012/01/slight-case-of-overspeeding.html https://chernobylproject.blogspot.com/2012/01/slight-case-of...
- caseysoftware 9y agoAmazing. If I ever get banned from entering a country, I want it to be for something epic like this.
- dsl 9y agoIt is really interesting how similar the Russian space shuttle is in design to the American space shuttle. Kinda like how all of China's latest generation fighter jets look suspiciously similar to their American counterparts... https://www.defensetech.org/2015/09/29/lawmaker-chinese-j-31-j-20-mirror-american-f-35-f-22/ https://www.defensetech.org/2015/09/29/lawmaker-chinese-j-31...
- justinjlynn 9y agoIt seems espionage is a recurring theme : http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2016/12/14/buran-shuttle-soviet-espionage/ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2016/12/14/buran-shut...
- sitharus 9y agoThat's because Buran was built as a direct response to the Space Shuttle. Apparently the Soviets couldn't imagine civilian uses for such a large reusable vehicle so built their own to find out what it was for. There are also significant differences though. Buran didn't carry its own engines, Energia provided all the launch thrust. The orbital manoeuvring system used LOX/Kerosene instead of MMH/N2O4. Also it was fully automated, its solo launch and landing happened under computer control.
- kobeya 9y agoIt's a bit more than similarity. Watch the launch video of the Buran and you'll see it executes a roll shortly after take-off. Why does it do that? The American space shuttle performs that exact roll at that exact height because the orientation of pad 39A at Cape Canaveral is wrong and it corrects as soon as it clears the tower. The Buran launches from a different tower at a different latitude with a different height at a different orientation... but it performs _exactly_ the same roll. I'll let you draw your own conclusions.
- plugger 9y agoMy conclusion is that you've got no idea what you're talking about! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roll_program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roll_program
- canada_dry 9y agoOn my bucket list: - tour the Chernobyl area - tour the Buran facility - sit ringside to a rocket launch in Kazakhstan Who's in??
- TeMPOraL 9y agoIf only you posted it a few weeks ago... I just came back from touring the Chernobyl area. 10/10 recommended, would go again. The remaining two of your points are on my bucket list too.
- joshvm 9y agoIf you visit the European Astronaut Corps (ESAC) in Bonn/Cologne you can see a lot of cool stuff - they have 1:1 mockups of the ISS (various modules) including stickers, a neutral buoyancy lab and a Soyuz trainer. It's tricky to get in randomly unless you have friends there (not for any security reason, it's just not a public place), but I think they do tours every now and again. Although why Kazakhstan? You can visit Cape Canaveral (which launches fairly often) or French Guyana. You wouldn't want to be ringside, even if you could get there. There's a good chance you'd be deafened. Rocket launches sound like a fighter jet flyby even when you're in the public viewing areas.
- lmm 9y agoDon't forget Tanegashima, which prides itself on being the most beautiful space launch site.
- JoeDaDude 9y agoThis reminded me of the film Baikonur [1], actually shot on location with a few views of the Soviet facilities there. [1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1826610/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1826610/
- MrBlue 9y agoMy Father-in-law was on the team that wrote the OS for that shuttle.
- mrexroad 9y agoCool! Any interesting stories he can share?
- nodesocket 9y agoI'm super curious how they figured out these were here and the exact location. Second, If that were me, I'd be wearing a respirator and medical gloves. God knows what sort of toxic chemicals are floating around.
- jlennon99 9y agoMaybe they read the myriad of old articles about the site? http://www.popsci.com/why-soviet-space-shuttle-was-left-rot http://www.popsci.com/why-soviet-space-shuttle-was-left-rot The above is from 2015, though I recall reading about the find years earlier.
- akshayn 9y agoIf you want to see a Buran without hiking through the desert for 3 days, you can go to Technik Museum Speyer [1] - they also have other great air&space related exhibits (notably including an Antonov An-22 and a retired Boeing 747-200). [1] https://speyer.technik-museum.de/en/spaceshuttle-buran https://speyer.technik-museum.de/en/spaceshuttle-buran
- sarnu 9y agoYes, I can second that. Cool museum. My kids love it, too.
- 0xbear 9y agoI remember reading somewhere that those shuttles were in an old hangar that collapsed on top of them. Looks like that wasn't true, this was definitely shot fairly recently, drones and all.
- kayoone 9y agoAt one point in the video they mention that this is what happened to the only Buran that actually was in space. The ones in the video were never completed/in service it seems.
- ezzaf 9y agoThey actually mention the hanger collapse during the video, that was the only ex-operational Buran that got crushed. The hanger in the video is the one that houses partially completed Burans.
- locusm 9y agoGreat footage, perfect use case for drones, their channel looks pretty interesting too. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC73dVtWf9mpjiWYkXyIlm7A https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC73dVtWf9mpjiWYkXyIlm7A
- mrleinad 9y agoSuch a waste. Rusia should restore those sites so people can visit them.