Buran, Buran

[Sooner Boomer]

A couple of guys hiked across the Kazakhstan spaceport where two of the remaining Buran "shuttles" are stored. They did this at night. The duo spent the next day in the hidden hangar of the Buran vehicles taking impressive photos, videos, and capturing some pretty amazing drone footage of two mostly completed orbiters.

Article: https://arstechnica.com/science/201...ing-soviet-vehicles-still-impress/?comments=1

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q7ZVXOU3kM&feature=youtu.be

 

[dhbarr]

This was some amazing footage. Wish they'd send me a stack of ceramic tile....

 

[Nytrunner]

That was an incredibly unwise thing to do. Oh well, their skins, our reward?

 

[Woody's Workshop]

I don't think we shall ever understand the Russians.
Even if the new political party didn't support the space program, they should have sold the stuff to the Chinese or other interest country (EXCEPT, their buddies the North Koreans).
Like they did with all those rocket engines that they sold us for umpteen million dollars the needed rebuilt before use...and had many failures.
At least they could have recovered part of their investment.
It seams so much of Russia is off limits due to radioactivity and other military things...

 

[Zeus-cat]

I don't think we shall ever understand the Russians.
Even if the new political party didn't support the space program, they should have sold the stuff to the Chinese or other interest country (EXCEPT, their buddies the North Koreans).
Like they did with all those rocket engines that they sold us for umpteen million dollars the needed rebuilt before use...and had many failures.
At least they could have recovered part of their investment.
It seams so much of Russia is off limits due to radioactivity and other military things...

Well the Soviets ran a closed system; no one in power was accountable to the people. So they wasted billions of dollars on a space shuttle copy, who cares? Not your average Joe or Ivan; they knew to keep their mouths shut.

 

[Peartree]

I don't think we shall ever understand the Russians.
Even if the new political party didn't support the space program, they should have sold the stuff to the Chinese or other interest country (EXCEPT, their buddies the North Koreans).
Like they did with all those rocket engines that they sold us for umpteen million dollars the needed rebuilt before use...and had many failures.
At least they could have recovered part of their investment.
It seams so much of Russia is off limits due to radioactivity and other military things...

If you had Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos kind of money and could afford to ship something that big halfway around the world and build a building to house it (or store it in a back corner of your new Megafactory) I'm sure that the Russian government would be more than happy to arrange something.

 

[tmacklin]

Fascinating video that clearly illustrates what can happen in a top down, command and control, master planned economy. The interior shots of the assembly building showing the rust and peeling paint reminded me of my last visit to the VA Medical Center on Lancaster in Dallas. Scary!

 

[modeltrains]

Interesting, thank you.

 

[Winston]

A couple of guys hiked across the Kazakhstan spaceport where two of the remaining Buran "shuttles" are stored. They did this at night. The duo spent the next day in the hidden hangar of the Buran vehicles taking impressive photos, videos, and capturing some pretty amazing drone footage of two mostly completed orbiters.

Article: https://arstechnica.com/science/201...ing-soviet-vehicles-still-impress/?comments=1

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q7ZVXOU3kM&feature=youtu.be

Very cool. Thanks.

I don't know why the Ruskies don't sell this historic stuff to a western museum since they obviously don't intend to take care of it themselves.

The ONE Buran flight was pretty impressive, unmanned and auto-landing. Anyone ever seen anything on whether THEY had thermal protection tile problems since I ASSUME they just copied the US methods?

 

[OverTheTop]

The another interesting aspect of the Buran project was that they had a version for training for landings. It had jet engines for propulsion. Neat

This one is currently on display at a museum in Germany