Photos from inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome
ralphmirebs.livejournal.com
Photos from inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome
1–10 of 124 posts
Re: Photos from inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome
#2This reminds me of the cancelled Superconducting Super Collider in Texas.
The argument to keep building it was they'd already invested billions and it would cost millions of dollars to stop building it.
I guess that cost would have been from contract guarantees to the builders or something.
Looks like when the Soviets stop building something they just walk away.
Re: Photos from inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome
#3The page is in Russian, here is the Google Translate link: https://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fralphm...
Re: Photos from inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome
#4Fascinating. Why wouldn't it have been scrapped for parts or at least the metal?
Re: Photos from inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome
#5Business Insider has a partial translation of most of the captions: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/photos-of-russian-abandone...
Re: Photos from inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome
#6Fascinating. Why wouldn't it have been scrapped for parts or at least the metal?
Probably because scrapping it would've cost a small fortune and what's left over just wouldn't be worth it.
Re: Photos from inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome
#7Fascinating. Why wouldn't it have been scrapped for parts or at least the metal?
Probably because scrapping it would've cost a small fortune and what's left over just wouldn't be worth it.
In the UK you only have to leave something on the pavement and scrap metal hunters will come by and take it ... seems like there has to be a net gain to scrapping this much metal - if it were a ship then salvage companies would have had it already.
I'm surprised that they didn't post a guard there with clean up duty to at least keep it all from rusting in to the ground.
Wonder how much it would be to buy and whether you could get enough visitors to the "secret Russian space base" to make it pay.
Re: Photos from inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome
#8This reminds me of the cancelled Superconducting Super Collider in Texas. The argument to keep building it was they'd already invested billions and it would cost millions of dollars to stop building it. I guess that cost would have been from contract guarantees to the builders or something. Looks like when the Soviets stop building something they just walk away.
I'd put it the other way: they stopped building because the Soviet Union walked away.
The first Buran test flight was on November 15, 1988. Literally the next day (November 16), the Estonian SSR basically declared sovereignty by saying its laws would precede those of the USSR, and the house of cards started collapsing.
Re: Photos from inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome
#9I've seen a Buran up close - a few years ago (I think in the early 2000s?) one of them was toured around as a static display. Quite impressive - they let you walk right through it. I believe it was the sub-orbital testing craft.
Re: Photos from inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome
#10This reminds me of the cancelled Superconducting Super Collider in Texas. The argument to keep building it was they'd already invested billions and it would cost millions of dollars to stop building it. I guess that cost would have been from contract guarantees to the builders or something. Looks like when the Soviets stop building something they just walk away.
>> Looks like when the Soviets stop building something they just walk away.
According to Wikipedia [1] the Buran-program was cancelled when the Soviet Union stopped existing. It was a time of chaos and many parts of the country were not working. Resuming construction on a space shuttle was probably at the very bottom of their priorities in 1990.