5 ms·

Soviet version of the Space Shuttle

33 points by cullenking 16y ago

chli 16y ago
There is one exposed in Germany at the "Technik Museum" in Speyer. The story behind that particular model is quite amazing. Taken from : http://speyer.technik-museum.de/node/647 http://speyer.technik-museum.de/node/647 "After the end of the Russian space shuttle program, a long odyssey began for the BURAN OK-GLI. In 1999, after 10 years of storage, it was shipped to Sydney where it was exhibited as a tourist attraction during the Olympic Summer Games. Subsequently the shuttle was taken over by an investment group from Singapore who was planning a world-tour with the BURAN. However, the first and last station of the tour was Bahrain. Due to financial differences the shuttle was seized and put into storage in the harbor of Bahrain. In the summer of 2003 the BURAN was acquired by the museum but transport to Germany was delayed because of legal struggles for five years. In early March 2008 finally the time had come - The BURAN was loaded onto a cargo ship. The voyage to the Technik Museum Speyer could begin."
- sasvari 16y ago
  http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=buran%20speyer&biw=943&bih=662 http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=buran%20speyer&#... google images reveals some amazing pictures of the transport to the museum.
Soupy 16y ago
It's interesting to note that there was a recent story that went around in September about the Buran being "rediscovered" in a junkyard. This is interesting since the traditional history of the Buran states that it was destroyed when the hanger it was stored in collapsed. I don't read Russian so it was hard for me to follow the story so take this with a grain of salt. source: http://www.mk.ru/photo/social/1090-buran-prinesennyiy-v-zhertvu.html http://www.mk.ru/photo/social/1090-buran-prinesennyiy-v-zher...
- pavel_lishin 16y ago
  Quick translation: "Even the impossible happens. You'd think that an abandoned spaceship laying on a Moscow street would be something out of science fiction. Alas, it's reality. Correspondent "MK" discovered the Soviet orbiter Buran laying, like garbage, on the outskirts of the capital. Nobody seems to care that at one point it was the symbol of our country's might in space." (Disclaimer: haven't spoken Russian regularly since I was 10, but luckily, newspapers are written for that sort of literacy levels anyway.)
thingie 16y ago
One interesting difference from the American program that had always intrigued me is that Buran was carried horizontally on a heavy launch pad with gear to erect the whole unit on the launch site, moving on pretty much ordinary railway tracks, hauled by off-the-shell diesel locomotives, while the Shuttle has to be moved in vertical position, very carefully and slowly, on a very special vehicle, that cannot be done in a stronger wind, and so on. For me, it was always like real version of the american space pen and Russian pencil urban legend. The Russian solution here is obviously superior in every its aspect.
- growt 16y ago
  I think the reason is that the shuttle is using the old Saturn V infrastructure and the Saturn had to be transported vertically. The infrastructure (launchpad, etc) is really expensive, so this was a rather smart choice.
- pvg 16y ago
  A lot of the infrastructure for storing and moving the Shuttle is inherited from the Apollo program. Whatever's going on here looks convoluted enough - http://farm1.static.flickr.com/107/315442494_6d3239a0ff.jpg http://farm1.static.flickr.com/107/315442494_6d3239a0ff.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2010/2028067672_2ba6479d74.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2010/2028067672_2ba6479d74.jp... Seems pretty hard to tell what solution is 'obviously superior' unless you're a rocket-moving engineer or somesuch.
  - oiuytghyujki 16y ago
    Supposedly Buran's launch pad is also due to this. Because it's pad was built on top of an earlier Apollo pad the shuttle launches in the wrong orientation and has to make a roll just after takeoff to head into orbit. The Russians copied this non-optimal arrangement for Buran believing that there must be some advantage that they didn't know about but Nasa had discovered,
    - Luc 16y ago
      So the Soviets copied this with no more than a shrug of the shoulders? That's kind of hard to believe. Those engineers were just as good, if not better, than the ones in the west... Any rocket needs roll, pitch and yaw to get into the right orbit, or to reduce stress along a certain axis, or to orient comms antennas towards the ground. Saturn V did this too.
adlep 16y ago
From the space/engineering/scientific point of view the cold war period was actually quite beneficial to both Soviet Union and the United States. Now, the budget of both US and Russian space programs is like a shadow of its former self. These days some folks in the US are shelling millions of dollars to build a wooden replica of Noahs Ark in Kentucky.... http://arkencounter.com/ http://arkencounter.com/ I want my cold war back!
- Shengster 16y ago
  I like how the organization behind this wants people to "donate" for their cause, while the ark itself will be owned by a private corporation. Nice swindle eh? If the project doesn't work out, they keep the cash donations, if the project works out, they charge people to see it.

33 points by cullenking 16y ago

chli 16y ago

There is one exposed in Germany at the "Technik Museum" in Speyer. The story behind that particular model is quite amazing. Taken from : http://speyer.technik-museum.de/node/647 http://speyer.technik-museum.de/node/647 "After the end of the Russian space shuttle program, a long odyssey began for the BURAN OK-GLI. In 1999, after 10 years of storage, it was shipped to Sydney where it was exhibited as a tourist attraction during the Olympic Summer Games. Subsequently the shuttle was taken over by an investment group from Singapore who was planning a world-tour with the BURAN. However, the first and last station of the tour was Bahrain. Due to financial differences the shuttle was seized and put into storage in the harbor of Bahrain. In the summer of 2003 the BURAN was acquired by the museum but transport to Germany was delayed because of legal struggles for five years. In early March 2008 finally the time had come - The BURAN was loaded onto a cargo ship. The voyage to the Technik Museum Speyer could begin."

sasvari 16y ago
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=buran%20speyer&biw=943&bih=662 http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=buran%20speyer&#... google images reveals some amazing pictures of the transport to the museum.

Soupy 16y ago

It's interesting to note that there was a recent story that went around in September about the Buran being "rediscovered" in a junkyard. This is interesting since the traditional history of the Buran states that it was destroyed when the hanger it was stored in collapsed. I don't read Russian so it was hard for me to follow the story so take this with a grain of salt. source: http://www.mk.ru/photo/social/1090-buran-prinesennyiy-v-zhertvu.html http://www.mk.ru/photo/social/1090-buran-prinesennyiy-v-zher...

pavel_lishin 16y ago
Quick translation: "Even the impossible happens. You'd think that an abandoned spaceship laying on a Moscow street would be something out of science fiction. Alas, it's reality. Correspondent "MK" discovered the Soviet orbiter Buran laying, like garbage, on the outskirts of the capital. Nobody seems to care that at one point it was the symbol of our country's might in space." (Disclaimer: haven't spoken Russian regularly since I was 10, but luckily, newspapers are written for that sort of literacy levels anyway.)

thingie 16y ago

One interesting difference from the American program that had always intrigued me is that Buran was carried horizontally on a heavy launch pad with gear to erect the whole unit on the launch site, moving on pretty much ordinary railway tracks, hauled by off-the-shell diesel locomotives, while the Shuttle has to be moved in vertical position, very carefully and slowly, on a very special vehicle, that cannot be done in a stronger wind, and so on. For me, it was always like real version of the american space pen and Russian pencil urban legend. The Russian solution here is obviously superior in every its aspect.

growt 16y ago
I think the reason is that the shuttle is using the old Saturn V infrastructure and the Saturn had to be transported vertically. The infrastructure (launchpad, etc) is really expensive, so this was a rather smart choice.
pvg 16y ago
A lot of the infrastructure for storing and moving the Shuttle is inherited from the Apollo program. Whatever's going on here looks convoluted enough - http://farm1.static.flickr.com/107/315442494_6d3239a0ff.jpg http://farm1.static.flickr.com/107/315442494_6d3239a0ff.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2010/2028067672_2ba6479d74.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2010/2028067672_2ba6479d74.jp... Seems pretty hard to tell what solution is 'obviously superior' unless you're a rocket-moving engineer or somesuch.
- oiuytghyujki 16y ago
  Supposedly Buran's launch pad is also due to this. Because it's pad was built on top of an earlier Apollo pad the shuttle launches in the wrong orientation and has to make a roll just after takeoff to head into orbit. The Russians copied this non-optimal arrangement for Buran believing that there must be some advantage that they didn't know about but Nasa had discovered,
  - Luc 16y ago
    So the Soviets copied this with no more than a shrug of the shoulders? That's kind of hard to believe. Those engineers were just as good, if not better, than the ones in the west... Any rocket needs roll, pitch and yaw to get into the right orbit, or to reduce stress along a certain axis, or to orient comms antennas towards the ground. Saturn V did this too.

adlep 16y ago

From the space/engineering/scientific point of view the cold war period was actually quite beneficial to both Soviet Union and the United States. Now, the budget of both US and Russian space programs is like a shadow of its former self. These days some folks in the US are shelling millions of dollars to build a wooden replica of Noahs Ark in Kentucky.... http://arkencounter.com/ http://arkencounter.com/ I want my cold war back!

Shengster 16y ago
I like how the organization behind this wants people to "donate" for their cause, while the ark itself will be owned by a private corporation. Nice swindle eh? If the project doesn't work out, they keep the cash donations, if the project works out, they charge people to see it.