I think being able to walk away from a project like this is actually quite commendable, in a way. Not that it's always the right call, but to be able to avoid the 'sunk cost fallacy'[1] on this scale is something that large governments/companies seem rarely capable of. That said, in this case, maybe they just didn't have a choice and ran out of money...
Photos from inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome
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Re: Photos from inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome
#12looks amazing
Re: Photos from inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome
#13Fascinating. Why wouldn't it have been scrapped for parts or at least the metal?
The location is very remote, and all of Baikonur remains a closed military zone leased to Russia. So unless the Russians themselves decide to strip it, nobody else can either.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baikonur_Cosmodrome#Russian_er...
Re: Photos from inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome
#14looks amazing
many more pics here: https://encrypted.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=buran%20launc...
Re: Photos from inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome
#15I believe in the next 50 years we will see a lot of this in occidental countries. I don't think the problems will stop with Greece default, it just started with it.
Re: Photos from inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome
#16I'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.
There is one in a museum in germany:
http://speyer.technik-museum.de/de/spaceshuttle-buran
It was used for the landing tests and is still in pretty good shape.
Re: Photos from inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome
#17This is actually much better than I expected. I thought all Burans were thought destroyed, with the last being that one that a building fell onto. It seems that one was the one that actually made a test flight, but there are other incomplete or test vehicles surviving: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_programme#Fleet_status_a...
Re: Photos from inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome
#18On reading up, "finding" isn't quite accurate, as the locations of these two shuttles were perfectly well known. They're OK-1K2 and OK-4M on Wikipedia's list below, located in MZK building 80, area 112a, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_programme#Buran-class_sp...
However, obviously sneaking in to take pictures is not an everyday occurrence, it's still a Russian military base and parts of the site remain in active use for the Russian space program.
Re: Photos from inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome
#19Fascinating. Why wouldn't it have been scrapped for parts or at least the metal?
If you let it get old enough, it will become more valuable as it is than as scrap.
Might be already. Probably not, but maybe.
Re: Photos from inside the Baikonur Cosmodrome
#20Fascinating. Why wouldn't it have been scrapped for parts or at least the metal?
I'd prefer to see them in museums.
Even unfinished spaceplanes are very interesting items.