Buran-Energia

The first version of the FCS Mag has arrived. This review was made by some members of the Space Exploration Forum (in French) for the joy of everybody and not only specialists. The advantage of this formula is that the articles are written by passionnated people of this field (professionals or amateurs) which make them very interesting.
We can find articles about space news, missions in the ISS for example, as well as historical and scientific articles.

I wish long life for the webzine.

To download it it’s here or on the picture.

Here is some pictures of the last BOR-5 (more pictures) in Russia, it is stocked at the Monino airbase. On those pictures we can see details on the temperature regulation system in the wings and attitude thrusters on the back.

Thanks to Orbicraft.

I had the occasion to visit, this summer, the Cosmonautic museum of Kaluga. This is the first museum about space exploration, it was built in 1967 under the decision of S.P. Korolev, even if it is a little bit old it is still an astonishing place because of its assortments and rockets.

The visit begins here.

Here is some pictures, of the personal collection of Eugene Arseniev, taken during the arrival of the EPOS at the Monino base.

More pictures in the gallery.

Source: Orbicraft.

Here is some pictures I took in the Tushino’s suburbs where Buran OK-2.01 is parked.

Landing gear.

Actuator of the vertical stabilizer.

Reinforced Carbon Carbon tile (leading edge of the wing).

Braking parachute it’s weighting 175kg and was used to slow down the shuttle after it’s landing. We can see on the third picture the user’s guide.

I recently visited the Memorial museum of Astronautics in Moscow, this museum is located under the Space Conqueror monument near the VDNKh park.
The museum reopened this year (on April 12, 2009) with pomp and circumstance and now exhibit many interesting objects.

The visit starts here.

Here is an interview I had with Igor Volk test pilot of the Buran space shuttle.
He was selected in 1978 to become the chief of the test pilot crew of Buran and flew on the space station Salyut 7 in 1984 to test the aptitude of a cosmonaut to pilot the Buran on the way back.

The journey go on with the visit today of the Tsiolkovsky’s house. This house is located in the Kaluga town in the Tsiolkovsky’s street, not far from the Oka river.

It’s here.