Buran-Energia

Pictures on Polyus are difficult to find, mostly because it was part of the Soviet military defense program.

Here are 3 new pictures of the Polyus on the launch pad 250 with the Energia launch vehicle.

Other pictures on Polyus here.

Here are pictures I took of the space department in the Polytechnical museum in Moscow.

The museum is really big and has many other departments (cars, aviation, energie, telecommunication, …), if you go in Moscow you should visit it.

Back from my little trip in Russia I publish pictures of the space museums I visited. Here, it’s the museum of aviation and cosmonautic which is located in Moscow not far from the former airport.

Other museum’s pictures will come.

Here begin the visit.

During a meeting for the inauguration of a school, director of Roscomos, A.N. Perminov confirmed that there is no plans to revive the Buran project, nor develop a reusable system, at least like the Buran/Shuttle.

In accordance to the president of Roscosmos there is no plan to develop a reusable transport system even if the idea is interesting and it is necessary to continue researches in this field. But the way it was done on Buran and on the American Shuttle is detrimental because it implies important using costs and it is not secure.

The main point is the economical aspect, the cost of a launch of the American Shuttle is up to 0.5 billion of dollars, this is a lot of money even for a country like the United States.

The second point is about security, this spacecraft is not reliable at 100%, two accidents on the Shuttle showed it. Despite the hight level of design of Buran and the Shuttle, this is the same for Buran. This way has no advantage and is hazardous.

Ещё на один вопрос ответил А.Н. Перминов – о «Буране»: «Нет ли сегодня планов возрождения этого проекта или каких-то других проектов создания многоразовых пилотируемых космических кораблей?»
«Не хотелось вас огорчать, но лучше сразу сказать: нет, не планируем. Идея создания многоразовых космических кораблей сама по себе хорошая и будет использована дальше однозначно. Но как она была исполнена и на «Буране», и на американских шаттлах, она оказалась невыгодной из-за высокой стоимости обслуживания и ненадёжности.
Во-первых: экономический аспект. Стоимость запуска одного шаттла обходится НАСА до 0,5 млрд долларов. Это очень много даже для такой страны, как Америка.
Во-вторых: надёжность. Пока ещё не обеспечена 100-процентная надёжность кораблей многоразового использования, и 2 случая катастроф с шаттлами тому свидетельство. Несмотря на отличия в схеме компоновки «Бурана» и шаттлов, всё остальное на «Буране» то же самое – те же недостатки. Это направление оказалось невыгодным и опасным.

Source: http://www.federalspace.ru/main.php?id=2&nid=11499

Here are some pictures of Energia-M took at baikonur in 1991.

Those pictures are from a private collection.

Other pictures here.

Igor Volk (tests pilots chief of the Buran program) was at the Speyer museum (Germany) on last 8th May to receive the TM-19 Soyuz capsule and attend an autograph show in the new space building.

Pictures: Nicolas Pillet.

The new edition of the FCS magazine has arrived !

It is a little bit smaller than the number 1 but contains 106 pages where you will be able to read articles about the Apollo program and the Soviet exploration of the Moon through the Lunakhod rovers, there are interviews and also actualities articles notably with the mission on the ISS of Maxim Suraev.

You can download it here (in French).

Some days ago TV Roscosmos published a reporting about space planes, Spiral, BORs, and Buran, and their military implications. Their development were closely linked to the vision of Gleb Lozino Lozinsky (chief of the Buran project) which thought that space travels must be done aboard space planes.