Buran-Energia

The shuttle OK-TVA was a thermal, mechanical and acoustic test model. Like all others tests shuttles it was a full scale model. In 1997, the shuttle was bring to the Gorky Park (at Moscow) to be modified in an entertainment. Unfortunatly, it hasn’t bring enough people as it was planned and the managers have to face financial difficulties.

During the month of august a part (left side) of the heat shield of the shuttle was removed, allowing us to see the fuselage in aluminium alloy. No explanations were given, but it seems that it was done for repairing the shield. Indeed, this « shield » is not the real, it’s made from wooden pieces which decay because the shuttle is not sheltered.

More pictures in the gallery.

The renovation of the EPOS plane finished on last August 20 in the Monino museum.

The museum’s employees had, for the occasion, organised a little expostion about the history of this plane and a photo session for children.

Another pictures.

Here is some pictures of the destroyed 1.01 Buran space shuttle (the only model which flown) and the Energia launcher. After its historical flight the shuttle was parked in the 112 hangar piggy backed of an Energia launcher. Unfortunatly in 2001 the roof collapsed during its renovation, destroying the shuttle and the launcher and killing 7 workers.

Those pictures were taken in the begining of the year 2008.

Buran is often considerated as a poor copy of the american shuttle just because it looks similar (in shape), but the differences are deeper, that’s why I made a comparison (buran.su) between the 2 systems, STS and Buran-Energia. This comparison is based on the mains functionnalities of the launchers and shuttles, on-board computer, engines, dimensions, etc…

Moreover, I compared the 2 systems in their begining, because Buran didn’t evolved.

The EPOS plane is beeing restaured for some days now at the Monino museum. This museum had a lot of unique planes such as the prototype of the space combat plane, EPOS. This plane was part of the SPIRAL project, which was an horizontal launcher, which preceded Buran.

Those works are to restore the landing skid, the air speed sensor, and other mechanicals elements. But also to restore the inside of the cockpit. This restoration work is an important task and was began in 2000.

Other pictures.

Update of July 21:

Here is other pictures of the restauration.

The exhibtion Apollo and Beyond which will take place in the Speyer museum in Germany will open on October 2 for the VIPs and the next day (October 3) for everyone.

This exhibition will be the occasion to see the Buran space shuttle OK-GLI, which hasn’t participed to such event since 2001.

Here is a reportage about the sell of the BOR-5 mock-up which was broadcasted on CNN in 2001. The BOR-5 is a mock-up at 1:8 of the Buran shuttle which was used to make suborbitals flights tests.

This afternoon took place a conference on space at the Vincennes’s floral parc (Paris). This conference was about: The Space Conquest by Mankind – its strength and its limits. It was lead by Patrick Baudry (second French astronaut).
The conference was in 2 parts, in the first time a movie about STS-51-G was screened (commented by Mr Baudry), then the public could ask questions at Mr Baudry about this mission, about space in general and about futur space projects, like moon colonisation. At last an autograph session ended the meeting.
Here is 2 short videos (in French) and some pictures: