4 ms·

This Girl Snuck Into a Russian Military Rocket Factory

144 points by shahed 15y ago

DanBC 15y ago
I love the images and it's a great story. But I'm cautious because of the "Russian Motorcycling girl sneaks into Chernobyl and takes photos" thing, which was part fake / hoax.
- silvertab 15y ago
  I immediately thought of that story too! I still think it was an interesting read even after knowing it was part hoax! Here's the link for those (few?) who haven't read it yet: http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chapter1.html http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chapter1.html
  - zalew 15y ago
    I remember the site, but what was the hoax part exactly?
    - vl 15y ago
      She got in with the official guide and then reported it and published photos as if she rode her bike there by herself. People go there completely legally for sightseeing for many years now for a small fee.
      - zalew 15y ago
        oh, right http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Filatova http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Filatova 'Chernobyl tour guide Yuri Tatarchuk claimed that Filatova "booked a tour, wore a leather biker jacket and posed for pictures.' LOL Yeah, there are legal trips to Czarnobyl and lots of photos from the place (although you can't enter with vehicles), that's why I was curious what is the hoax about.
- nilchameleons 15y ago
  To be fair, this is a lot harder to 'fake' - and even if it's not a missile factory specifically, it's clearly a dilapidated factory of some sort and she got some fantastic photos of it.
- JonnieCache 15y ago
  It's probably real. People do this stuff all the time. http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=67536 http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=67536 http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=67492 http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=67492 http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=40287 http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=40287 There's hundreds of other examples on that site.
  - DanBC 15y ago
    For sure, but there's a big difference between "factory" and "military factory".
    - JonnieCache 15y ago
      The last one of those links is a bomb factory.
karolisd 15y ago
This looks familiar because it looks like a lot of video game levels.
- ecaroth 15y ago
  For sure! I just just wondering if I could sneak in there w/ a bunch of my friends and play the world's most intense paintball game!
- michaelty 15y ago
  On that note, some music to listen to while looking through those photos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj0F2KfCvhg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj0F2KfCvhg
  - hnhg 15y ago
    I happened to have this on while opening the link and it fitted perfectly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UXrCq384hE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UXrCq384hE
    - powertower 15y ago
      More fitting for the situation... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRRTOnXOZsM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRRTOnXOZsM
- trobertson 15y ago
  Specifically, STALKER. That's all I could think about when looking at those images. They look nearly identical.
  - enjo 15y ago
    Black Ops has pretty much that entire thing perfectly reproduced.
- gojomo 15y ago
  I immediately thought of Half-Life 2.
carlsednaoui 15y ago
If these pics are real (and not a hoax), this is amazing! Well, even if it's a hoax, this is amazing! Im surprised she shows her face though...
ck2 15y ago
Even if it's abandoned, isn't she going to wind up in the Russian version of gitmo? (Siberia?)
- viraptor 15y ago
  Not really. Of course meeting a guard would be a pretty stressful experience, but it's not like Russia is filled with slave camps. Unless you're a vocal activist, you should be ok ;)
ChuckMcM 15y ago
Translation into english: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Flana-sator.livejournal.com%2F160176.html http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&... I was thinking the same thing (vis-a-vis the hoax) like the girl who rode through Chernobyl on her motorcycle which turned out to be a hoax. Then I thought about places where thieves are stealing cable to the street lights to resell as scrap copper and it makes me wonder if this place would be picked apart like that.
- klausa 15y ago
  I think I saw that Chernobyl one, how that turned out to be a hoax? I was planning driving with friends there one summer, and whole idea of this trip was inspired by those photos.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - eCa 15y ago
    You will not be able to drive to Chernobyl by yourself. The only way to visit the restricted zone (~30km out from the plant) is by going with a tour company. Which is why the motorcycle thing is either a hoax or she is "highly connected".
    - klausa 15y ago
      Do you happen to know how much tour company bills for such trip?
      - ThaddeusQuay2 15y ago
        $600: http://rt.com/news/prime-time/chernobyl-tourist-destination-ban-227 http://rt.com/news/prime-time/chernobyl-tourist-destination-... (Legal fallout bans Chernobyl zone tourism)(2011-NOV-25)
        15y ago
nilchameleons 15y ago
I'd love to see a translation of this. There's a few shots with her in them that seem like they'd be tough to do with a tripod & timer (though to be fair I am no photographer) so I'm curious who, if anyone, she went in there with and what brought them there in the first place.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
jcfrei 15y ago
wow - just a reminder of the vast machinery required to produce rockets with chemical based propellants
xxqs 15y ago
this is a testing ground for rocket engines. It's not abandoned, but simply the photos were made at night when nobody is around. They perform engine tests quite regularly there. the girl is lucky that she didn't get poisoned. the nasty thing is that it's in the middle of a populated area. UPD: here's the illustration of an actual engine test http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/2/33213654.df/0_71e83_5dfd0bfb_XXL.jpg http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/2/33213654.df/0_71e83_5dfd0bf...
fedd 15y ago
she states that the russian administrative code lets you visit the site if it is not surrounded by a fence (which had beed partially ruined before by someone). i am not sure that that will help her against the prosecution, she must have revealed some secrets of a rocket engine factory. check the wikileaks case, the guy published the information he didn't steal himself, he had the right to do so but it didn't help much.
powertower 15y ago
Today I learned that Moscow has a giant exhaust pipe sticking out of it that discharges combusted rocket fuel mixture ... which is then combined with water vapor, turned into a giant toxic fume cloud, and spread through-out the city. I would love to know the reason for its placement there.
- CapitalistCartr 15y ago
  TIL == Today I learned? (Edit) I must be older than I thought. I take from the downvoting this is a well-known acronym I should know.
  - frou_dh 15y ago
    It's a redditism
- xxqs 15y ago
  it was built outside of the city several decades ago. But later the city has grown
  - powertower 15y ago
    I hear a 'In Soviet Russia joke coming on...
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
- njs12345 15y ago
  From the website of the company that runs the facility (http://www.npoenergomash.ru/eng/ http://www.npoenergomash.ru/eng/) it would seem most of the tests are of engines which use a liquid oxygen/kerosene mixture - presumably not much more toxic than exhaust from cars..
jes5199 15y ago
I love photos of crazy, giant machinery. It's easy to forget that mankind builds things that are way, way larger than human scale that you just don't see in your comfortable city life.
eroded 15y ago
Sorry, but what is the relevance of this to Hacker News? Please don't let this turn into Reddit.
- justinhj 15y ago
  From the site faq: What to Submit... On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.
- BiosElement 15y ago
  Go back to Reddit, you clearly belong there. :)
sakopov 15y ago
This is not a hoax. It was on Russian national news network at about the same time when one of their satellites came down.
eapen 15y ago
For a second, I thought I spotted a Dalek in there. http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/5/33213654.df/0_71e64_c0b3a07c_XXL.jpg http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/5/33213654.df/0_71e64_c0b3a07...
huhtenberg 15y ago
> This Girl Snuck Into a Russian Military Rocket Factory It is neither military nor is it a factory. It is a rocket engine test facility. Interesting stuff nonetheless. Looks like a great source of grunge textures :)
olegious 15y ago
It seems she is an expert in this type of exploration- her whole blog is devoted to it, here's her entry of military finds- http://lana-sator.livejournal.com/tag/military http://lana-sator.livejournal.com/tag/military
Tichy 15y ago
Alyx, is that you?
bmj 15y ago
Reminds me of the Sleepy City (http://sleepycity.net/ http://sleepycity.net/) folks.
makhanko 15y ago
If this were an active military facility there would have been a portrait of Vladimir Putin hanging in every room. But obviously this factory has long been abandoned.
myth_drannon 15y ago
And in this type of collapsing facility they test the engines that never reach the orbit.
Empedocles99 15y ago
Reminded me of this, a WWII/Cold War missile test site in San Diego: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2008/apr/02/--/ http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2008/apr/02/--/

144 points by shahed 15y ago

DanBC 15y ago

I love the images and it's a great story. But I'm cautious because of the "Russian Motorcycling girl sneaks into Chernobyl and takes photos" thing, which was part fake / hoax.

silvertab 15y ago
I immediately thought of that story too! I still think it was an interesting read even after knowing it was part hoax! Here's the link for those (few?) who haven't read it yet: http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chapter1.html http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chapter1.html
- zalew 15y ago
  I remember the site, but what was the hoax part exactly?
  - vl 15y ago
    She got in with the official guide and then reported it and published photos as if she rode her bike there by herself. People go there completely legally for sightseeing for many years now for a small fee.
    - zalew 15y ago
      oh, right http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Filatova http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Filatova 'Chernobyl tour guide Yuri Tatarchuk claimed that Filatova "booked a tour, wore a leather biker jacket and posed for pictures.' LOL Yeah, there are legal trips to Czarnobyl and lots of photos from the place (although you can't enter with vehicles), that's why I was curious what is the hoax about.
nilchameleons 15y ago
To be fair, this is a lot harder to 'fake' - and even if it's not a missile factory specifically, it's clearly a dilapidated factory of some sort and she got some fantastic photos of it.
JonnieCache 15y ago
It's probably real. People do this stuff all the time. http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=67536 http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=67536 http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=67492 http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=67492 http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=40287 http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=40287 There's hundreds of other examples on that site.
- DanBC 15y ago
  For sure, but there's a big difference between "factory" and "military factory".
  - JonnieCache 15y ago
    The last one of those links is a bomb factory.

karolisd 15y ago

This looks familiar because it looks like a lot of video game levels.

ecaroth 15y ago
For sure! I just just wondering if I could sneak in there w/ a bunch of my friends and play the world's most intense paintball game!
michaelty 15y ago
On that note, some music to listen to while looking through those photos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj0F2KfCvhg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj0F2KfCvhg
- hnhg 15y ago
  I happened to have this on while opening the link and it fitted perfectly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UXrCq384hE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UXrCq384hE
  - powertower 15y ago
    More fitting for the situation... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRRTOnXOZsM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRRTOnXOZsM
trobertson 15y ago
Specifically, STALKER. That's all I could think about when looking at those images. They look nearly identical.
- enjo 15y ago
  Black Ops has pretty much that entire thing perfectly reproduced.
gojomo 15y ago
I immediately thought of Half-Life 2.

carlsednaoui 15y ago

If these pics are real (and not a hoax), this is amazing! Well, even if it's a hoax, this is amazing! Im surprised she shows her face though...

ck2 15y ago

Even if it's abandoned, isn't she going to wind up in the Russian version of gitmo? (Siberia?)

viraptor 15y ago
Not really. Of course meeting a guard would be a pretty stressful experience, but it's not like Russia is filled with slave camps. Unless you're a vocal activist, you should be ok ;)

ChuckMcM 15y ago

Translation into english: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Flana-sator.livejournal.com%2F160176.html http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&... I was thinking the same thing (vis-a-vis the hoax) like the girl who rode through Chernobyl on her motorcycle which turned out to be a hoax. Then I thought about places where thieves are stealing cable to the street lights to resell as scrap copper and it makes me wonder if this place would be picked apart like that.

klausa 15y ago
I think I saw that Chernobyl one, how that turned out to be a hoax? I was planning driving with friends there one summer, and whole idea of this trip was inspired by those photos.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- eCa 15y ago
  You will not be able to drive to Chernobyl by yourself. The only way to visit the restricted zone (~30km out from the plant) is by going with a tour company. Which is why the motorcycle thing is either a hoax or she is "highly connected".
  - klausa 15y ago
    Do you happen to know how much tour company bills for such trip?
    - ThaddeusQuay2 15y ago
      $600: http://rt.com/news/prime-time/chernobyl-tourist-destination-ban-227 http://rt.com/news/prime-time/chernobyl-tourist-destination-... (Legal fallout bans Chernobyl zone tourism)(2011-NOV-25)
      - 15y ago

nilchameleons 15y ago

I'd love to see a translation of this. There's a few shots with her in them that seem like they'd be tough to do with a tripod & timer (though to be fair I am no photographer) so I'm curious who, if anyone, she went in there with and what brought them there in the first place.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

jcfrei 15y ago

wow - just a reminder of the vast machinery required to produce rockets with chemical based propellants

xxqs 15y ago

this is a testing ground for rocket engines. It's not abandoned, but simply the photos were made at night when nobody is around. They perform engine tests quite regularly there. the girl is lucky that she didn't get poisoned. the nasty thing is that it's in the middle of a populated area. UPD: here's the illustration of an actual engine test http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/2/33213654.df/0_71e83_5dfd0bfb_XXL.jpg http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/2/33213654.df/0_71e83_5dfd0bf...

fedd 15y ago

she states that the russian administrative code lets you visit the site if it is not surrounded by a fence (which had beed partially ruined before by someone). i am not sure that that will help her against the prosecution, she must have revealed some secrets of a rocket engine factory. check the wikileaks case, the guy published the information he didn't steal himself, he had the right to do so but it didn't help much.

powertower 15y ago

Today I learned that Moscow has a giant exhaust pipe sticking out of it that discharges combusted rocket fuel mixture ... which is then combined with water vapor, turned into a giant toxic fume cloud, and spread through-out the city. I would love to know the reason for its placement there.

CapitalistCartr 15y ago
TIL == Today I learned? (Edit) I must be older than I thought. I take from the downvoting this is a well-known acronym I should know.
- frou_dh 15y ago
  It's a redditism
xxqs 15y ago
it was built outside of the city several decades ago. But later the city has grown
- powertower 15y ago
  I hear a 'In Soviet Russia joke coming on...
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
njs12345 15y ago
From the website of the company that runs the facility (http://www.npoenergomash.ru/eng/ http://www.npoenergomash.ru/eng/) it would seem most of the tests are of engines which use a liquid oxygen/kerosene mixture - presumably not much more toxic than exhaust from cars..

jes5199 15y ago

I love photos of crazy, giant machinery. It's easy to forget that mankind builds things that are way, way larger than human scale that you just don't see in your comfortable city life.

eroded 15y ago

Sorry, but what is the relevance of this to Hacker News? Please don't let this turn into Reddit.

justinhj 15y ago
From the site faq: What to Submit... On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.
BiosElement 15y ago
Go back to Reddit, you clearly belong there. :)

sakopov 15y ago

This is not a hoax. It was on Russian national news network at about the same time when one of their satellites came down.

eapen 15y ago

For a second, I thought I spotted a Dalek in there. http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/5/33213654.df/0_71e64_c0b3a07c_XXL.jpg http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/5/33213654.df/0_71e64_c0b3a07...

huhtenberg 15y ago

> This Girl Snuck Into a Russian Military Rocket Factory It is neither military nor is it a factory. It is a rocket engine test facility. Interesting stuff nonetheless. Looks like a great source of grunge textures :)

olegious 15y ago

It seems she is an expert in this type of exploration- her whole blog is devoted to it, here's her entry of military finds- http://lana-sator.livejournal.com/tag/military http://lana-sator.livejournal.com/tag/military

Tichy 15y ago

Alyx, is that you?

bmj 15y ago

Reminds me of the Sleepy City (http://sleepycity.net/ http://sleepycity.net/) folks.

makhanko 15y ago

If this were an active military facility there would have been a portrait of Vladimir Putin hanging in every room. But obviously this factory has long been abandoned.

myth_drannon 15y ago

And in this type of collapsing facility they test the engines that never reach the orbit.

Empedocles99 15y ago

Reminded me of this, a WWII/Cold War missile test site in San Diego: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2008/apr/02/--/ http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2008/apr/02/--/