Buran-Energia

Antonov Airlines has decided to finished the construction of the second Mriya. In fact, during the 80′s another Mriya was partially built, for the tests, but it was stopped due to lack of money. It seems that the amount of work is too important now for one plane and that’s why they are finishing the second one.

The renovation began in 2006 and should end in 2008.

Since November 2006 the Baikonur’s authorities have decided to repair the MIK 112′s roof.

This building was built during the 60′s to shelter the production line of the new soviet lunar launcher the N1. At the late 70′s and during the 80′s it was reused for the Energia launcher and Buran (final integration tests).

After the successful launch of Buran on november 15, 1988 this last was set on another Energia launcher and stored in this building.

But due to the close of the Buran-Energia project and the collapse of the USSR, there was lack of money and the building turned sour. During the roof fix in 2002 it collapsed, destroying Buran 1.01 (the model which flew), an Energia launcher, and 7 of the workers which worked there.

See also: Pictures of the MIK 112.

Air picture of the collapsed roof:

Air picture of the reparation:

Update: Baikonur is in an arid land, it rains only few days a year (this one of the reasons the soviet authorities chose this place for the cosmodrome). But there is a continental climat, very hot in the summer (up to 40°C) and very cold in the winter. That’s why this building was thermally isolated but not protected against the rain. The material used to isolate was a kind of foam which soak up water. This year it rained a lot, the roof was soaked up of water and when workers came to fix it it collapsed because of its weight.

Here is an article about the different ways of use of Buran (with an high proportion for the military). Of course Buran should be used for putting into orbit different kind of objects (civil or military), but also for a module of a combat space station.

We are far from the peaceful space wanted by Mikhail Gorbatchev.

I added on the Buran section 2 articles, one on the auxiliary power system, the VSU, indeed Buran wasn’t equipped with fuel cells so it used a turbine powered by hydrazine to generate the energie of the on-board systems. And another one about the 37KB module which was used during the first flight of Buran to put additional instruments on-board.