Soviet version of the Space Shuttle
en.wikipedia.org
Soviet version of the Space Shuttle
1–10 of 29 posts
Re: Soviet version of the Space Shuttle
#2There 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
"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."
Re: Soviet version of the Space Shuttle
#3It'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-zher...
Re: Soviet version of the Space Shuttle
#4One 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.
Re: Soviet version of the Space Shuttle
#5One 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…
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.
Re: Soviet version of the Space Shuttle
#6One 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 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://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.
Re: Soviet version of the Space Shuttle
#7One 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…
The Buran was also capable of landing entirely by itself, something I don't believe the shuttle can do even now.
Re: Soviet version of the Space Shuttle
#8There 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 "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. Subse…
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=buran%20speyer&#...
google images reveals some amazing pictures of the transport to the museum.
Re: Soviet version of the Space Shuttle
#9One 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 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://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.
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,
Re: Soviet version of the Space Shuttle
#10One 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…
It's likely that the Shuttle design may be lighter as it only has support weight in one direction while the Buran design requires it to have load bearing structures for two orientations.