Buran-Energia

Here is some pictures of the launch pad 110 and 250 shot in 2006. To remind you, the 110 area was used to launch Buran in November 15, 1988, whereas the 250 area was used to launch Polyus in May 17, 1987.

Those 2 areas haven’t been used since then and are in a bad shape now.

Area 110:

Area 250:

I added a new document Birds of a feather. Birds of a Feather? How Politics and Culture Affected the Designs of the U.S. Space Shuttle and the Soviet Buran. This work by Stephen J. Garber is very interesting because it shows the evolution of the orbital planes conception from the American and Soviet side as well as the various political and technical choices which led to such solution. Furthermore it shows clearly that the development of Buran was not due to a scientific need but indeed to balance the military forces between the 2 sides.

Here are some pictures of the Energia’s first stage, in the Baikonur’s workshop:

I added them in the Energia’s pictures section.

I published some pages on the Soviets then Russians engines developped by the NPO Energomash company. I speak about the company and its history, then the various engines it designed for launchers. I also published a page on the rocket engine mechanism and the difference between the opened and closed cycle.

New photos on the Buran-Energia project, in the Buran’s pictures section:

• Carriage on the Energia’s top tank by the VM-T Atlante plane.
• Assembling of the first stage boosters.
• Tests on Buran and Energia on the launch pad, at this stage the shuttle is not finished yet.
• Carriage of Buran and Energia on the launch pad.
• Preparation for the flight.
• Storage of Buran 1.01 after its first flight.

I updated the chapter about Energia to add articles about Vulkan and Energia M, which are launchers of the Energia familly. I will add in the next days an article on the Zenit launcher too.

Update 2006-12-15: New pages about the Zenit launcher, which was also used for the A block of Energia.

Addition of a video about putting into orbit a communication satellite. The load is placed on the side of Energia like Polyus. This animation was computed by the spatial simulation software Orbiter.