Buran-Energia

Jean-Loup Chrétien went to space on June 24, 1982. He then becomes the first occidental to flight in space (nor Sovietic, nor American) but also the first French cosmonaut. He stayed some days in space aboard the Salyut space station to proceed to experiences for the CNES agency.

In 1988, he had the chance to go again, also with the Soviets, but aboard the brand new MIR station for a joint mission, Aragatz, between France and USSR. The launch date was settled at November 26, 1988, but 11 days earlier another historical event took place.

Jean-Loup Chrétien and his Soyuz TM-7 partners,  Alexander Volkov and Sergei Krikalev, arrived at Baikonur weeks before the launch to finish their training on the cosmodrome. Early in the morning of November 15, they are waken up by the staff of the hotel, which said them that a launch is going to take place. So the small group, the crew, the backup crew and some members of the hotel went upstairs on the building’s roof and watch in the direction of the lunar launch pad enlightening the night. At that time the USSR was in a bad financial state and the Energia-Buran program was suffering financial cuttings, some people said that if the launch doesn’t take place this morning the shuttle will never be launch.

Then suddenly a big light appeared at the horizon. Spectacular and blinding, this light began to go up to the clouds base which it reached in few seconds, going from this incandescent dot to a magnificent light disc which slowly blow out as Buran was mounting in the clouds. Buran lifted off under an awful weather, during an inky night, and must came back to Baikonur just few hours later and succeed her first automatic landing. It’s was also her first flight, without crew onboard. We stayed  disbelieving, and watching during hours the evolution of the weather. It was clear that our russians colleagues had took lots of risks. We learned later that the chances of success were less than 50%. [...]

The local TV  broadcasted the rest of the events. Buran began her reentry in the atmosphere at the right time, and we were watching with anxiety the picture shoot by the television camera orientated to the base of the clouds in the landing strip axis. The ceiling was low, it continued to snow, and a strong crosswind was blowing. Suddenly Buran escaped from the clouds, some 20 to 30 seconds before landing. We were holding our breast and watching this majestic vehicle beginning its circle before touching down. The landing was magnificent, and Buran stopped majestically in a tremendous applause. Ignoring the risks by getting close too quickly, a group of engineers and technicians ran toward this hero to acclaim it with enthusiasm. Vodka was flowing, even knowing that despite her success it should be her last flight.

Extract from the book: Rêves d’étoiles (Dreams of stars), Jean-Loup Chrétien.

Visit of François Mitterrand, for the launch of JL. Chrétien, in the hangar 112.

Presidential Concorde on the Ybileiniy airport (Buran’s landing strip).

Here are some pictures of the renovation of the OK-M shuttle at the Baikonur’s museum. Those pictures were taken during the begining of 2007.

Here is the pictures I took of the Baikonur’s museum. This museum is really impressive and should be more known.
For the visit it’s here.

Here is a presentation reporting about the Buran-Energia program and the OK-GLI test shuttle, which was broadcasted on russia television (Rossia chanel).

Another reportings here.

I done something I wanted to do for a long time that is displaying more pictures in the journey pages. But I didn’t want the text to be lost into too many pictures.

So I choose to put a slideshow of additional pictures. For now I only did the Baikonur journey, but the one at Cap canaveral will arrive soon.

Update of February 26:
I just published the others slideshows about the journey to Cap canaveral.

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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.

Early April took place the launch of the Soyuz TMA-12 to the ISS with the first south Korean on-board (Yi So-Yeon). I had the chance to see the launch and visit the buildings and installations of the Baikonur’s cosmodrome (as well as the Stars City).

Here is the story.

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.