AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Buran shuttle destroyed12/18/2023 In addition, it was also designed and built to operate autonomously, making it capable of completing orbital missions without a crew on board.Īmid much international speculation on the abilities of the craft and after numerous delays and setbacks, the Soviet Union launched the Buran from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on November 15, 1988. Instead of housing the vehicle’s main engines within the spacecraft, the Soviet designers opted to attach the space plane to a super-heavy lift Energia rocket. Stored on a grass area next to part of the crowdline and seen during the Russian Air Force 100th Anniversary Airshow. It is assumed that it will become part of some kind of museum. It moved to Zhukovsky on a barge in 2011. It was only 50% completed when the programme ended and remained stored at the Tushino factory for many years. While ‘Buran’ was the name of the programme and also the first shuttle built, the fleet were all to have different names and this would have been the ‘Baikal’. This was the third ‘Buran’ space shuttle built but was the first of the second generation shuttle, with several modifications over the initial two aircraft. Despite the clear aesthetic resemblance, however, the Buran did depart from the American design in a number of important ways. A Soviet DesignĪs previously reported, with all the technical information they needed, construction on the Buran began in 1980, and within just four years, the Soviets were able to unveil a strikingly familiar-looking spacecraft. Through espionage, the Soviets had even obtained the design specifications of the U.S. There were soon reports that the Soviet Union was trying to build a shuttle to match the U.S. Though the development had been conducted in secret, Australian fishermen caught sight of a Soviet ship pulling a small-scale model from the ocean. In addition, the Soviets saw the potential for such a space plane, and they began their own program and soon started testing an unpiloted scale model of the Buran, called the Bor. This alarmed Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev so much that he ordered that a set of alternative measures be developed to secure the country from such an attack. Sikharulidze and Dmitry Okhotsimsky had written a report that warned how the space shuttle could make a “dive” in its orbit as it passed over Moscow, and release a nuclear weapon. Moscow was even concerned that the space shuttle could be employed as a type of orbital bomber. space shuttle launches that the Soviet Ministry of Defense took a renewed interest in the project, due to the fact that it could deliver larger and more complex spy satellites into orbit and even allow crews to conduct maintenance and repairs. Soviet interest in such a vehicle was revived in the 1950s, but for the next 30 years, it was still a secondary consideration. The concept of a reusable spacecraft had actually existed before the first rockets launched humans into space, and was first considered by future Soviet space program manager Sergei Korolev in the 1930s. It has been widely described as the Soviet space shuttle. The Buran (Russian for “Blizzard”) was produced as part of the name of the program as well as the orbiter/spacecraft. However, the Soviet space agency, which faced several challenges, sought to develop its own reusable spaceplane. Tragically, two shuttles – STS-51-L Challenger and STS-107 Columbia – were lost in accidents. It successfully flew 135 missions and carried 355 astronauts from 16 countries into orbit. After the end of the Apollo program, the United States refocused on the Space Shuttle, its fourth human spaceflight program – which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Though the so-called “space race” culminated with the July 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing, the epic rivalry between the two nations continued into the 1970s and 1980s. That triggered a 12-year contest – one that was spirited, high-risk, and costly – between the Soviets and the Americans to gain dominance in the new frontier of space. Why the Buran Is Only a Footnote in Space History: During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union fortunately never engaged in direct combat – but there were moments when things could have gone quite differently.Ī key event occurred on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, into orbit.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |