Wrecked Burans

[NeoMorph]

I was looking up stuff on space shuttles and re-entry vehicles when I came across this absolutely wonderful Russian blog that has these images of the current state of the Buran shuttles just rotting away in their hangers at Baikonur.

http://ralphmirebs.livejournal.com/219949.html

This is a sad state of affairs for a lovely looking spacecraft... I mean, just look at this...

[Spaceception]

They should build a museum for it, not watch it rot away.

[fredinno]

3 hours ago, Spaceception said:

They should build a museum for it, not watch it rot away.

I'd hope so too, but Russia Space really has no money for anything right now, what with the budget cuts... And nod obey has bothered to clean the Buran facilities out for use, though Angara has been said that it might use the former Buran pad (and hopefully other facilities too)

[Nibb31]

Thanks for the news. We discussed these pictures several months ago:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/112148-rare-photos-of-survived-burans/

[rudi1291]

Not all of them are rotting away...

http://speyer.technik-museum.de/de/spaceshuttle-buran

Its just the atmospheric version, but its still a Buran.

And yes, putting them in hangars there nobody cares about them is a bit of a waste...

[Virtualgenius]

If they had the cash they should  reinstate them they are better than the american version but being over 20 years old maybe a limiting factor

[NeoMorph]

3 hours ago, Nibb31 said:

Thanks for the news. We discussed these pictures several months ago:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/112148-rare-photos-of-survived-burans/

Never saw them there... they are in the wrong section you see.

[Nibb31]

1 hour ago, Virtualgenius said:

If they had the cash they should  reinstate them they are better than the american version but being over 20 years old maybe a limiting factor

They don't have a rocket to fly on. Energia is as long gone as Saturn V is. The tooling and parts supply chain is gone, so you'd need to redesign a whole new rocket. Since most of Buran's components are obsolete too, there really isn't much worth reinstating at all.

Also "better" is subjective. The main purpose of the US STS was to bring back the crew and the very expensive main engines. Buran could fly unmanned, and the engines were expendable. As such, it didn't make much sense at all.

[Guest]

I've got a truck that's been outside since 1987 that still runs and doesn't look that bad.

It looks like maybe the building is decaying and debris is falling on it? I'd think they could maybe pull one of those burans outside and then demolish the hanger, sell off the scrap, and have enough money left over to give the buran a "car wash" and build a new garage or something for it. Then charge the public a small fee to come see it. It is a big piece of history after all, and might be even more valuable to future generations than it is to people now.

Edited January 18, 2016 by Otis

[Nibb31]

It's in the middle of Kazakhstan, not exactly a place with major touristic appeal.

[DECQ]

A sad spectacle, but honestly do not care about Buran, Energia Rocket very sorry, in fact the most versatile of all the rocket construction, from its components could get a whole different class Guard rocket ...

[fredinno]

1 hour ago, DECQ said:

A sad spectacle, but honestly do not care about Buran, Energia Rocket very sorry, in fact the most versatile of all the rocket construction, from its components could get a whole different class Guard rocket ...

What's that?

[K^2]

I'm more bummed about the Energia II / Hurricane development coming to an end. That seemed like the sort of launcher we could have really used.

[Kryten]

On 1/18/2016 at 11:34 AM, Otis said:

It looks like maybe the building is decaying and debris is falling on it?

I think that's mostly bird crap.

[magnemoe]

2 hours ago, Kryten said:

I think that's mostly bird crap.

However two of the windows and many of the tiles are missing making it look more like its hit with something. 

[Kryten]

Probably scavengers. I know there are plenty of Buran heat shield tiles that keep cropping up on Ebay with questionable provenance.

[NeoMorph]

I bet parts from the Buran that actually flew would fetch a decent price on the space collectables market. It is the ONLY space shuttle to fly a whole mission without any crew after all. Just makes you wonder what the ISS would have looked like with two shuttles docked to it... one American and one Russian... or maybe docked to each other... God, that would have been awesome.

[fredinno]

22 hours ago, K^2 said:

I'm more bummed about the Energia II / Hurricane development coming to an end. That seemed like the sort of launcher we could have really used.

Or Energia-M.

[batman78781]

Yeah, it seems like they stopped development b/c of money. The Buran stared since they heard US was making a space plane, probably for military purposes. Someone mentioned that STS was to bring back the engines but Buran was expendable, so there was really no point other than maybe bringing back satellites or something.

7 hours ago, NeoMorph said:

Just makes you wonder what the ISS would have looked like with two shuttles docked to it... one American and one Russian... or maybe docked to each other... God, that would have been awesome.

Wow, I'm trying to imagine... Even with just two STS it would be cool, but on the station if there was an emergency I'm assuming they would have evac'd in the Soyuz, not send more up.

[Panel]

How much would it cost to restore one of them to museum condition? It could make a great exhibit.

[fredinno]

1 hour ago, batman78781 said:

Yeah, it seems like they stopped development b/c of money. The Buran stared since they heard US was making a space plane, probably for military purposes. Someone mentioned that STS was to bring back the engines but Buran was expendable, so there was really no point other than maybe bringing back satellites or something.

Wow, I'm trying to imagine... Even with just two STS it would be cool, but on the station if there was an emergency I'm assuming they would have evac'd in the Soyuz, not send more up.

The Soviet military loved it, but the basic logic was that since the US had it, Soviet Russia must also have it too- even though every rocket scientist know it was a s**t idea.

[magnemoe]

16 hours ago, batman78781 said:

Yeah, it seems like they stopped development b/c of money. The Buran stared since they heard US was making a space plane, probably for military purposes. Someone mentioned that STS was to bring back the engines but Buran was expendable, so there was really no point other than maybe bringing back satellites or something.

Wow, I'm trying to imagine... Even with just two STS it would be cool, but on the station if there was an emergency I'm assuming they would have evac'd in the Soyuz, not send more up.

Well an space shuttle is nice for construction an space station or doing repairs. Yes you could probably do without launching an module with an arm pretty early and dock the first parts. 
Two reasons for not having engines on the shuttle, first they did not have reuseable engines, second they could use the rocket as an very heavy lifter. 

[fredinno]

7 hours ago, magnemoe said:

Well an space shuttle is nice for construction an space station or doing repairs. Yes you could probably do without launching an module with an arm pretty early and dock the first parts. 
Two reasons for not having engines on the shuttle, first they did not have reuseable engines, second they could use the rocket as an very heavy lifter. 

Both could easily be done with propellant refuelling and reusable space tugs, cheaper.

[lajoswinkler]

Those aren't Burans, but just mockup models. Buran was destroyed.

[Kryten]

One of those is a mockup, yes but the other is the nearly finished second Buran, 1.02 Ptichka.