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Buran
The Soviet 'space shuttle'
Buran — Medium
On 30 September 1988, many readers of the Pravda newspaper — the official mouthpiece of the Soviet communist party — could not believe their eyes.
Published somewhat inconspicuously on the second page, there was a photo depicting the familiar shape of the US space shuttle, but with Soviet insignia on its wings.
Finally, years of rumors about a Soviet version of the shuttle had been confirmed.
On November 15, 1988, as snowy clouds and winds were swirling around Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Buran orbiter, attached to its giant Energia rocket, thundered into the gloomy early morning sky.
Three hours and two orbits later, the 100-tonne bird glided back to a flawless landing just a few miles from its launch pad.
Despite the kind of strong winds that would rule out any launch or landing attempt by the US space shuttle, Buran touched down just 3m off the runway centreline.
Buran Landing
And this planet-wide ballet was performed with its “pilots” safely on the ground.
The beginning…
With the announcement of the United States Space Shuttle Program in the late 1970's, commanders of the Soviet Space Program felt an urgency to develop an appropriate response to what was seen as a military threat and an attempt to secure space superiority.
In February 1976, despite apparent skepticism in the space industry, the Soviet government decided to respond to the “Shuttle threat” with a similar spacecraft and issued decree 132-51 which formaly announced the develpment of Energia-Buran spacecraft.
NPO Energia in Kaliningrad, Moscow Region, subordinated to the Ministry of General Machine Building, MOM, took overall responsibility for the development of the system named Energia-Buran.
In 1982, the Soviets began their unmanned test spacecraft, BOR-4, into orbit which provided valuable data regarding thermal heating and controllability during re-entry. The gata gathered from the four orbital launches of the BOR-4 spacecraft was used to develop the thermal protection tiles used on the Buran orbiter.
In December 1984, construction of the first Buran test prototype arrived at BaiKonur Cosmodrome to begin taxi testing. By this time, the US Space Shuttle fleet have to a total of three flyable spacecraft, with another two orbiter under construction.
The Buran test prototypes could actually take off like a normal jet fighter
In November 1985, the prototype Buran spacecraft completed its first atmospheric drop test piloted by test pilots Igor Volk and Rimantas Stankavichus.
Utilizing a specially design transport aircraft, the first flight ready Buran spacecraft arrived at Baikonur in 1985. This aircraft was later replaced by world’s largest heavy lift transport aircraft, the Antonov AN-225.
Final assembly, systems integration and testing began immediately. While working was progressing on the final assembly and checkout of flight-ready unit, the prototype test vehicle underwent 24 manned drop test flights validating the automated landing systems and computer controlled flight systems. In October 18, 1987, the final assembly and checkout of the Buran orbiter was completed.
Unlike NASA, Valentin Glushko, the head of NPO Energia, proposed a configuration where a heavy-lift launcher could be used with or without a winged orbiter.
One of the major differences between US Space Shuttle and Buran orbiter is that the Buran was not equipped with its own launch engines. The Soviet engineers felt the weight of the main engines restricted the orbiter ability to carry additional payload, leading them to conclude that the better option would be to design the primary launch boosters to the heavy lauch work. However, in order to successfully accomplish this, the developers would have to design a new launch system, which they would later name Energia booster.
Developed to be the most powerful booster built to date, the Energia was designed to be the core part of a modular launch system that could carry many different payloads into orbit, unlike the US Space Shuttle launch system which was designed solely for the Space Shuttle.
The Energia consisted of a central liquid-fueled rocket (with four engines) with four additional strap-on boosters. The system had the capacity to place about 105 Ton in Low Earth orbit, up to 20 Ton to the geostationary orbit and up to 32 Ton to a translunar trajectory.
Glushko was one of the first generation of Soviet rocket pioneers, who were experimenting in the 1930's under the tutelage of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky — one of the “fathers” of spaceflight. Like many of his contemporaries, he had little interest in designing weapons.
He did dream, however, about building a permanent base on the surface of the Moon.
Unfortunately, after losing the Moon race to America in 1969, Soviet leaders had little appetite for another deep-space adventure.
Still, Glushko probably hoped to exploit Cold War paranoia about the threat of the US shuttle as an opportunity to lay a detour road to the Moon, and possibly even to Mars.
Though similar in appearance to the US Space Shuttle, the Buran had many distinct differences that allowed it to carry out its first and only unmanned space flight.
By analyzing the outside appearance both Buran and The United States Space Shuttle, one could conclude the two spacecraft were almost identical. They had very similar design, both were launched with assistance of boosters, and both had similar equipments (i.e. remote manipulator arm, payload bay, tiled heat shields).
Launch configuration comparison between the US Space Shuttle and Buran
While they appeared very similar, there were several differences that impacted the performance capabilities of each spacecraft:
Technical and Performance comparison of the Soviet Buran and the US Space Shuttle
One of the main differences between the two vehicles was utilized only during the re-entry and landing. The US Space Shuttle required a minimum of two crew members to manually land the spacecraft. While there were automated systems onboard that monitored various parameters and offered suggestions, control authority of the vehicle was given solely to the pilot during landing. The Buran re-entry and landing sequence was entirely automated.
Program objectives
Energia-Buran’s chief architect, Valentin Glushko, hardly tried to educate warmongers at the Politburo about the questionable merits of the re-usable orbiter as a weapon. Unlike Nasa, Soviet developers never had any grand illusions about replacing traditional rockets with a reusable space truck.
The Buran was develop for a number of military and scientific missions. Although none of these missions were carried out, many of them were outlined by the USSR Defence Ministry.
The Soviets were still not convinced the US Space Shuttle was not being developed for a nuclear attack, so they proceeded to develop the Buran as a launch platform for its own nuclear response against the US. Preliminary designs called for a rotating cylinder housed in the payload bay of the Buran that could hold up to five thermo-nuclear devices shaped like the Spiral Space Plane developed in the 1960's for controlled re-entry into the atmosphere.
US Intelligence regarding the potential military application of the Buran space weapon systems helped fuel support for the US Star Wars anti-missile space shield system. The Soviets claimed the Buran could disable the proposed Star Wars system by overwhelming with small non nuclear attacks.
Aftermath
After the first flight of the Buran orbiter, engineers quickly went to work reviewing the data gathered from the flight. While they were discussing possible changes on the orbiter, discussions in Moscow began focusing on changes in political scene. By the time the first flight had taken place, the US fleet of space shuttles had already grown to a total of 4 and had experienced its first hull loss with the Challenger explosion. Fundinh Buran program was becoming very difficult as Moscow began to realize the US spacecraft was not being developed for military use and was more expensive to operate than previously estimated.
The Berlin Wall had come down just a year after its first flight, and the Soviet Defence Ministry was suddenly more preoccupied with resettling thousands of troops returning from Eastern Europe than with servicing orbital anti-missile platforms and deploying killer satellites in space.
With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Buran spacecraft and all of its related equipment suddenly became property of Kazakhstan. The newly formed government felt there was no need to continue development of the program and cutoff all remaining funding in 1992.
The transition of the Soviet Union also sealed the fate of the other Buran orbiters, four sisters that were in various stages of production at the time of the first mission in space.
The Buran family was to consist of the OK-1K2 “Ptichka”, which was 95-97 percent complete before the end of the program, followed by the OK-2K1 “Baikal”, which was classed as between 30-50 percent complete. Shuttle 2.02 and Shuttle 2.03 would have brought the fleet up to five vehicles.
The Buran itself, together with the Energia booster assembly, was put into storage in hangar MIK 112 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Russia, eventually, took charge of the program, nevertheless it was officially mothballed in 1993 by Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
Long after the end of the Buran program came the biggest disaster, when on 12 May, 2002 the hangar housing Buran collapsed during a huge storm in Kazakhstan.
The collapse killed eight workers who were carrying out maintenance on the roof of the building, and resulted in the destruction of Buran, which had been sat on top of an Energia mock up.
The remaining vehicles that were set to fly into space are in various locations and various conditions.
OK-1K2 “Ptichka” or “Little Bird” — which was set to fly in 1991 — is currently the property of Kazakhstan, left to collect dust inside the the MIK building at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
OK-2K1 “Baikal” was set to fly as a crewed vehicle in 1994. This vehicle had been unceremoniously left in a car park in Moscow, near Khimki Reservoir. She remained there until mid 2011, when she was barged to the MAKS 2011 international air show. She now resides in Ramenskoye.
OK-GLI’s history was not lost — unlike a lot of the Buran program — after she was salvaged and shipped to her retirement home at the Technikmuseum Speyer in Germany.
OK-GLI
Ironically, she was originally sold to an Australian company for display at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. After that company went bankrupt the model was later found rusting in a middle eastern desert.
A group of German tourists found her and fought many legal battles to gain custody of the vehicle to send her to Germany.
Numerous test vehicles and mock ups still exist, mainly located around Russia — such as the OK-TVA static test vehicle, which remains located in Gorky Park, Moscow.
In recent years, speculations and rumors have abounded that Russian Space Agency -Roscosmos- is considering bringing back the Buran Program. The sources cite the retirement of the US Space Shuttle fleet as the basis for their suggestions. However, Roscosmos director at the time, Anatoly Perminov, stated:
“In accordance to the president of Roscosmos there is no plan to develop a reusable transport system even if the idea is interesting and it is necessary to continue researches in the field. But the way it was done on Buran and on American Shuttle is detrimental because it implies important using cost and is not secure.
The main point is the economical aspect, the cost of a launch of the American Space Shuttle is 0.5 billion of dollars (US), this is a lot of money, even for a country like the United States.
The second point is about security, this spacecraft is not reliable 100%, two accidents on the Shuttle showed it. Despite of the high level of design of Buran and the Shuttle, this is the same for Buran. This way has no advantage and is hazardous. (Buran News, 2010)”
Conclusion
The Buran program was hastily of the Cold War era fear. The need to develop a response to the perceived nuclear threat of the US Space Shuttle program is what provide the Buran with seemingly unlimited funding and support from Soviet government. While innovative designs and advanced systems were introduced for the program, military and political initiatives became the priorities for the program. When the Soviet Union began to see the Space Shuttle as means to support scientific objectives rather then military missions, support for the Buran quickly eroded. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian government felt there were no objectives for the Buran that could not be filled by existing spacecraft. With no funding and no support, the Buran program literally came crashing to an end.
Please see the link bellow for more historical pictures:
Buran — Medium
The Soviet 'space shuttle'
Buran — Medium
It happened almost 26 years ago…On 30 September 1988, many readers of the Pravda newspaper — the official mouthpiece of the Soviet communist party — could not believe their eyes.
Published somewhat inconspicuously on the second page, there was a photo depicting the familiar shape of the US space shuttle, but with Soviet insignia on its wings.
Finally, years of rumors about a Soviet version of the shuttle had been confirmed.
On November 15, 1988, as snowy clouds and winds were swirling around Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Buran orbiter, attached to its giant Energia rocket, thundered into the gloomy early morning sky.
Three hours and two orbits later, the 100-tonne bird glided back to a flawless landing just a few miles from its launch pad.
Despite the kind of strong winds that would rule out any launch or landing attempt by the US space shuttle, Buran touched down just 3m off the runway centreline.
Buran Landing
And this planet-wide ballet was performed with its “pilots” safely on the ground.
The beginning…
With the announcement of the United States Space Shuttle Program in the late 1970's, commanders of the Soviet Space Program felt an urgency to develop an appropriate response to what was seen as a military threat and an attempt to secure space superiority.
In February 1976, despite apparent skepticism in the space industry, the Soviet government decided to respond to the “Shuttle threat” with a similar spacecraft and issued decree 132-51 which formaly announced the develpment of Energia-Buran spacecraft.
NPO Energia in Kaliningrad, Moscow Region, subordinated to the Ministry of General Machine Building, MOM, took overall responsibility for the development of the system named Energia-Buran.
In December 1984, construction of the first Buran test prototype arrived at BaiKonur Cosmodrome to begin taxi testing. By this time, the US Space Shuttle fleet have to a total of three flyable spacecraft, with another two orbiter under construction.
The Buran test prototypes could actually take off like a normal jet fighter
In November 1985, the prototype Buran spacecraft completed its first atmospheric drop test piloted by test pilots Igor Volk and Rimantas Stankavichus.
Utilizing a specially design transport aircraft, the first flight ready Buran spacecraft arrived at Baikonur in 1985. This aircraft was later replaced by world’s largest heavy lift transport aircraft, the Antonov AN-225.
Final assembly, systems integration and testing began immediately. While working was progressing on the final assembly and checkout of flight-ready unit, the prototype test vehicle underwent 24 manned drop test flights validating the automated landing systems and computer controlled flight systems. In October 18, 1987, the final assembly and checkout of the Buran orbiter was completed.
Unlike NASA, Valentin Glushko, the head of NPO Energia, proposed a configuration where a heavy-lift launcher could be used with or without a winged orbiter.
One of the major differences between US Space Shuttle and Buran orbiter is that the Buran was not equipped with its own launch engines. The Soviet engineers felt the weight of the main engines restricted the orbiter ability to carry additional payload, leading them to conclude that the better option would be to design the primary launch boosters to the heavy lauch work. However, in order to successfully accomplish this, the developers would have to design a new launch system, which they would later name Energia booster.
Developed to be the most powerful booster built to date, the Energia was designed to be the core part of a modular launch system that could carry many different payloads into orbit, unlike the US Space Shuttle launch system which was designed solely for the Space Shuttle.
The Energia consisted of a central liquid-fueled rocket (with four engines) with four additional strap-on boosters. The system had the capacity to place about 105 Ton in Low Earth orbit, up to 20 Ton to the geostationary orbit and up to 32 Ton to a translunar trajectory.
Glushko was one of the first generation of Soviet rocket pioneers, who were experimenting in the 1930's under the tutelage of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky — one of the “fathers” of spaceflight. Like many of his contemporaries, he had little interest in designing weapons.
He did dream, however, about building a permanent base on the surface of the Moon.
Unfortunately, after losing the Moon race to America in 1969, Soviet leaders had little appetite for another deep-space adventure.
Still, Glushko probably hoped to exploit Cold War paranoia about the threat of the US shuttle as an opportunity to lay a detour road to the Moon, and possibly even to Mars.
Though similar in appearance to the US Space Shuttle, the Buran had many distinct differences that allowed it to carry out its first and only unmanned space flight.
By analyzing the outside appearance both Buran and The United States Space Shuttle, one could conclude the two spacecraft were almost identical. They had very similar design, both were launched with assistance of boosters, and both had similar equipments (i.e. remote manipulator arm, payload bay, tiled heat shields).
Launch configuration comparison between the US Space Shuttle and Buran
While they appeared very similar, there were several differences that impacted the performance capabilities of each spacecraft:
Technical and Performance comparison of the Soviet Buran and the US Space Shuttle
One of the main differences between the two vehicles was utilized only during the re-entry and landing. The US Space Shuttle required a minimum of two crew members to manually land the spacecraft. While there were automated systems onboard that monitored various parameters and offered suggestions, control authority of the vehicle was given solely to the pilot during landing. The Buran re-entry and landing sequence was entirely automated.
Program objectives
Energia-Buran’s chief architect, Valentin Glushko, hardly tried to educate warmongers at the Politburo about the questionable merits of the re-usable orbiter as a weapon. Unlike Nasa, Soviet developers never had any grand illusions about replacing traditional rockets with a reusable space truck.
The Buran was develop for a number of military and scientific missions. Although none of these missions were carried out, many of them were outlined by the USSR Defence Ministry.
The Soviets were still not convinced the US Space Shuttle was not being developed for a nuclear attack, so they proceeded to develop the Buran as a launch platform for its own nuclear response against the US. Preliminary designs called for a rotating cylinder housed in the payload bay of the Buran that could hold up to five thermo-nuclear devices shaped like the Spiral Space Plane developed in the 1960's for controlled re-entry into the atmosphere.
US Intelligence regarding the potential military application of the Buran space weapon systems helped fuel support for the US Star Wars anti-missile space shield system. The Soviets claimed the Buran could disable the proposed Star Wars system by overwhelming with small non nuclear attacks.
Aftermath
After the first flight of the Buran orbiter, engineers quickly went to work reviewing the data gathered from the flight. While they were discussing possible changes on the orbiter, discussions in Moscow began focusing on changes in political scene. By the time the first flight had taken place, the US fleet of space shuttles had already grown to a total of 4 and had experienced its first hull loss with the Challenger explosion. Fundinh Buran program was becoming very difficult as Moscow began to realize the US spacecraft was not being developed for military use and was more expensive to operate than previously estimated.
The Berlin Wall had come down just a year after its first flight, and the Soviet Defence Ministry was suddenly more preoccupied with resettling thousands of troops returning from Eastern Europe than with servicing orbital anti-missile platforms and deploying killer satellites in space.
With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Buran spacecraft and all of its related equipment suddenly became property of Kazakhstan. The newly formed government felt there was no need to continue development of the program and cutoff all remaining funding in 1992.
The transition of the Soviet Union also sealed the fate of the other Buran orbiters, four sisters that were in various stages of production at the time of the first mission in space.
The Buran family was to consist of the OK-1K2 “Ptichka”, which was 95-97 percent complete before the end of the program, followed by the OK-2K1 “Baikal”, which was classed as between 30-50 percent complete. Shuttle 2.02 and Shuttle 2.03 would have brought the fleet up to five vehicles.
The Buran itself, together with the Energia booster assembly, was put into storage in hangar MIK 112 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Russia, eventually, took charge of the program, nevertheless it was officially mothballed in 1993 by Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
Long after the end of the Buran program came the biggest disaster, when on 12 May, 2002 the hangar housing Buran collapsed during a huge storm in Kazakhstan.
The collapse killed eight workers who were carrying out maintenance on the roof of the building, and resulted in the destruction of Buran, which had been sat on top of an Energia mock up.
The remaining vehicles that were set to fly into space are in various locations and various conditions.
OK-1K2 “Ptichka” or “Little Bird” — which was set to fly in 1991 — is currently the property of Kazakhstan, left to collect dust inside the the MIK building at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
OK-2K1 “Baikal” was set to fly as a crewed vehicle in 1994. This vehicle had been unceremoniously left in a car park in Moscow, near Khimki Reservoir. She remained there until mid 2011, when she was barged to the MAKS 2011 international air show. She now resides in Ramenskoye.
OK-GLI’s history was not lost — unlike a lot of the Buran program — after she was salvaged and shipped to her retirement home at the Technikmuseum Speyer in Germany.
OK-GLI
Ironically, she was originally sold to an Australian company for display at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. After that company went bankrupt the model was later found rusting in a middle eastern desert.
A group of German tourists found her and fought many legal battles to gain custody of the vehicle to send her to Germany.
Numerous test vehicles and mock ups still exist, mainly located around Russia — such as the OK-TVA static test vehicle, which remains located in Gorky Park, Moscow.
In recent years, speculations and rumors have abounded that Russian Space Agency -Roscosmos- is considering bringing back the Buran Program. The sources cite the retirement of the US Space Shuttle fleet as the basis for their suggestions. However, Roscosmos director at the time, Anatoly Perminov, stated:
“In accordance to the president of Roscosmos there is no plan to develop a reusable transport system even if the idea is interesting and it is necessary to continue researches in the field. But the way it was done on Buran and on American Shuttle is detrimental because it implies important using cost and is not secure.
The main point is the economical aspect, the cost of a launch of the American Space Shuttle is 0.5 billion of dollars (US), this is a lot of money, even for a country like the United States.
The second point is about security, this spacecraft is not reliable 100%, two accidents on the Shuttle showed it. Despite of the high level of design of Buran and the Shuttle, this is the same for Buran. This way has no advantage and is hazardous. (Buran News, 2010)”
Conclusion
The Buran program was hastily of the Cold War era fear. The need to develop a response to the perceived nuclear threat of the US Space Shuttle program is what provide the Buran with seemingly unlimited funding and support from Soviet government. While innovative designs and advanced systems were introduced for the program, military and political initiatives became the priorities for the program. When the Soviet Union began to see the Space Shuttle as means to support scientific objectives rather then military missions, support for the Buran quickly eroded. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian government felt there were no objectives for the Buran that could not be filled by existing spacecraft. With no funding and no support, the Buran program literally came crashing to an end.
Please see the link bellow for more historical pictures:
Buran — Medium
