To create the airframe of the Buran orbital spacecraft, a specialized enterprise, the Molniya research and production association, was formed on the basis of three design bureaus (KB Molniya, KB Burevestnik and the Experimental Machine-Building Plant, headed by General Designer Vladimir Myasishchev). The Tushino machine-building plant was chosen as the main production base. The new association was headed by Gleb Lozino-Lozinsky, who back in the 1960s worked on a project of reusable aviation space system"Spiral".
Currently, several models and flight copies have survived.
The flying spacecraft "Buran" was mothballed and left in the assembly and test building at the Baikonur cosmodrome (Kazakhstan). In 2002, the ship was completely destroyed by the collapsed roof of the hull.
The second ship, which was supposed to fly in automatic mode with docking with the manned Mir station, remained at Baikonur. In April 2007, it was installed in the exposition of the museum of the Baikonur cosmodrome. Is the property of Kazakhstan.
The third ship (the degree of readiness of the ship at the time of the termination of work was 30-50%) until 2004 was in the shops of the Tushinsky machine-building plant, in October 2004 it was transported to the berth of the Khimki reservoir for temporary storage. In June 2011, it was transported by river transport to the airfield in the city of Zhukovsky for restoration and subsequent display at the International Aviation and Space Salon (MAKS-2011).
After the air show, a model of a spaceship in one of the pavilions of the Ramenskoye (Zhukovsky) airfield.
One of the models of "Buran" - "Buran BTS-002" after the closure of the program in 1993, NPO "Molniya" demonstrated at the air show of the International Aviation and Space Salon. In 1999, the layout was leased to an Australian company for display at Olympic Games in Sydney, and then a Singaporean company that took him to Bahrain. In 2003 NPO Molniya sold Buran BTS-002 to a private Technical Museum in Speyer (Germany), where it arrived on April 12, 2008. It is currently on display at the Speyer Technical Museum.
Another full-size model of "Buran" ("BTS-001"), which was used to test the air transportation of the orbital complex, in 1993 was leased to the "Cosmos-Earth" company. "Buran" was installed in Moscow on the Pushkinskaya embankment of the Moskva River in Central park culture and recreation named after Gorky, a scientific and educational attraction was organized there. Now it is one of the attractions of the park.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
A video published on the YouTube channel Exploring the Unbeaten Path is gaining popularity on the Internet. Its authors, residents of the Netherlands, managed to get into the hangar on the territory of the Baikonur cosmodrome, in which the Soviet spaceship reusable "Buran".
The fifteen-minute video shows adventurers secretly sneaking into an abandoned hangar and examining a spacecraft that is slowly collapsing. "Our craziest and dangerous adventure", - this is how the creators themselves characterized the video.
"These hangars don't belong to anyone."
The penetration of the Dutch to "Buran" is by no means the first such case. In 2015, pictures of this hangar and the apparatus located in it were posted on the Web by a user Ralph Mirebs... And in May 2017, a whole group from Russia, Ukraine and Great Britain entered the hangar, which was detained by the security personnel of the cosmodrome.
“It turns out these hangars don't belong to anyone. They are located, as it were, on the territory of the cosmodrome, but there is nothing secret or important, the FSB has no interest in these hangars, ”wrote one of the participants in the May infiltration, rufer Vitaly Raskalov... At the same time, according to him, the operating launch sites of the cosmodrome are carefully guarded.
Abandoned hangars at Baikonur are a memory of one of the most ambitious space programs in the USSR.
"Energy - Buran"
Construction of the Soviet reusable spacecraft began back in the seventies, in response to a similar American Space Shuttle program. The ship was supposed to carry out tasks both for the peaceful exploration of outer space and within the framework of military programs.
Within the framework of the project, the most powerful Soviet launch vehicle, called Energia, was created. The carrier, capable of putting up to 100, and in the future, 200 tons of payload into orbit, could lift into space not only a reusable spacecraft, but also heavy space stations. In the future, it was planned to use "Energy" to prepare an expedition to the moon.
The first launch of the Energia launch vehicle took place in 1987. On November 15, 1988, Energia lifted the Buran reusable spacecraft into orbit.
Buran was superior to its American counterparts in many respects. Its maiden flight was fully automatic, including landing.
2 trillion down the drain?
The Energia-Buran program was the most ambitious and expensive in the history of Russian cosmonautics. At the rate of 2016, its cost is approximately 2 trillion rubles. For the Buran landings, a reinforced runway was specially equipped at the Yubileiny airfield in Baikonur. In addition, two more main reserve landing sites for the Buran were seriously reconstructed and fully equipped with the necessary infrastructure - the Bagerovo military airfields in Crimea and Vostochny in Primorye - and runways were built or reinforced in 14 additional landing sites, including outside the territory THE USSR. An-225 "Mriya" was created especially for transportation from alternate airfields. A special squad of cosmonauts was prepared to pilot the Buran.
According to the developers' plan, "Buran" was to conduct another 1-2 flights in automatic mode, after which its operation would begin in a manned version.
but Mikhail Gorbachev considered that the project was too expensive, and in 1990 ordered the suspension of work on the program. In 1993, after the collapse of the USSR, the Energy - Buran program was completely closed.
"Buran" was killed, "Tempest" and "Baikal" remained
It should be clarified: the ship that adventure lovers penetrate is not "Buran".
The real "Buran", which flew into space, was completely destroyed on May 12, 2002 when the roof of the assembly and test building of the cosmodrome collapsed. Under the rubble, 8 workers were killed while repairing the roof. The remains of the "Buran" were cut into pieces by the cosmodrome workers and subsequently sold as scrap metal.
The ship, standing in the assembly and refueling building (or at the 112 A site), which was removed by bloggers, is the so-called "product 1.02", that is, the second flight copy of the Soviet reusable ship. The "product" also had a proper name: "The Tempest".
The fate of The Tempest is no less sad. The ship was about 95 percent ready and was due to fly in 1992. But the closure of the program put an end to these plans.
The ship changed ownership several times, and currently the owner of the Buri is unknown. The hangar, where it is located, is periodically exposed to raids by hunters for non-ferrous metal.
"Product 2.01" (the "Baikal" ship) by the time the program was closed was about 50 percent ready. Until 2004, the ship was in the shops of the Tushino machine-building plant, then changed its registration several times, in 2011 it reached Zhukovsky near Moscow, where it was supposed to become an exhibit of the air show after reconstruction.
Two more copies, laid down at the plant in Tushino, were disassembled there after the closure of the program.
What is worth at VDNKh?
In addition, within the framework of the Buran program, several prototypes were created for dynamic, electrical, airfield and other tests. Many people still take these models for real ships.
BTS-002 OK-GLI or "product 0.02", on which atmospheric tests and testing were carried out real conditions the most important areas of the flight, after long wanderings around the world in 2008 for 10 million euros was acquired by the owner of a private Technical Museum By Herman Lyre and is on display in the German city of Speyer.
BTS-001 OK-ML-1 or "product 0.01" after the closure of the program for many years was an attraction in Moscow's Gorky Park. In 2014, he changed his registration and was transported to VDNKh, where he is now.
One of the mock-ups, OK-MT, is the “neighbor” of the “Buri” in the hangar, into which bloggers are so fond of penetrating.
Model of the spaceship "Buran" on the territory of the Exhibition of Economic Achievements. Photo: RIA Novosti / Alexey Kudenko
Does the great past have a future
In 2016, it became known that Roskosmos decided to create a department for reusable launch vehicles at one of the enterprises. Veterans of the Energia-Buran project were brought into the department's team. This time, the tasks for the developers are not so ambitious: we are talking about the creation of a flight prototype of the returnable first stage of the launch vehicle, which should provide a significant reduction in the cost of domestic space programs.
As for large-scale projects like the Energy-Buran program, they are a matter of the future.
On November 15, 1988, the space shuttle Buran was launched. After the launch of the universal rocket and space transport system"Energia" with "Buran", it went into orbit, made two orbits around the Earth and made an automatic landing at the Baikonur cosmodrome.
This flight was an outstanding breakthrough in Soviet science and discovered new stage in the development of the Soviet space research program.
The fact that in the Soviet Union it is necessary to create a domestic reusable space system, which would serve as a counterbalance in the policy of containing potential adversaries (Americans), was told by the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences and NPO Energia analytical research(1971-1975). Their result was the assertion that if the Americans launch the reusable Space Shuttle system, they will gain an advantage and the ability to deliver nuclear missile strikes. And although American system did not pose an immediate threat at the time, but it could threaten the country's security in the future.
Work on the creation of the Energia-Buran program began in 1976. About 2.5 million people took part in this process, representing 86 ministries and departments, as well as about 1300 enterprises throughout the territory. Soviet Union... For the development of the new ship, NPO Molniya was specially created, headed by G.E. Lozino-Lozinsky, who already in the 60s worked on the Spiral reusable rocket and space system. 
It should also be noted that, despite the fact that for the first time the ideas for creating spacecraft-airplanes were expressed by the Russians, namely by Friedrich Zander back in 1921, domestic designers were in no hurry to bring his ideas to life, since this business seemed to them extremely troublesome ... True, work was carried out on the design of the Planning Spacecraft, however, due to technical problems that arose, all work was stopped.
But work on the creation of winged spaceships began to be carried out only in response to the start of such work by the Americans. 
So, when in the 60s in the USA work began on the creation of the Dyna-Soar rocket plane, the USSR launched work on the creation of the R-1, R-2, Tu-130 and Tu-136 rocket planes. But the most great success Soviet designers was the project "Spiral", which was to become the harbinger of "Buran".
From the very beginning, the program for creating a new spacecraft was torn by conflicting requirements: on the one hand, the designers were required to copy the American Shuttle in order to reduce possible technical risks, reduce the time and cost of development, on the other hand, the need to adhere to the program put forward by V. .Glushko on the creation of unified rockets intended for the landing of an expedition on the lunar surface.
During the formation of the appearance of "Buran" were offered two options. The first version was similar to the American Shuttle and consisted of a layout of an aircraft with a horizontal landing and placement of engines in the tail. The second option was a wingless scheme with vertical fit, its advantage was that it was possible to reduce the design time by using data on the Soyuz spacecraft. 
As a result, after the tests, the horizontal landing scheme was adopted as a basis, since it most fully met the requirements put forward. The payload was located on the side, and the second stage propulsion engines were located in the central block. The choice of this location was caused by the lack of confidence that it would be possible to create a reusable hydrogen engine in a short time, as well as the need to preserve a full-fledged launch vehicle that could independently launch not only a ship into orbit, but also large volumes of payloads. If we look a little ahead, we note that such a decision was fully justified: Energia managed to ensure the launch of large spacecraft into orbit (it was 5 times more powerful than the Proton launch vehicle and 3 times more powerful than the Space Shuttle).
The first and only sings "Burana", as we said above, took place in 1988. The flight was carried out in unmanned mode, that is, there was no crew on it. It should be noted that, despite the superficial resemblance to the American Shuttle, the Soviet model had a number of advantages. First of all, these ships were distinguished by the fact that the domestic one could put into space, in addition to the ship itself, also additional cargo, and also had greater maneuverability during landing. The shuttles were designed in such a way that they would land with their engines turned off, so they could not, if necessary, try again. "Buran" was equipped with turbojet engines, which made it possible in case of bad weather conditions or any unforeseen situations. In addition, "Buran" was equipped with an emergency crew rescue system. At a low altitude, the cockpit with pilots could be ejected, and at high altitudes it was possible to disconnect the module from the launch vehicle and make an emergency landing. Another significant difference was the automatic flight mode, which was not available on American ships. 
It should also be noted that the Soviet designers did not harbor illusions about the economic efficiency of the project - according to calculations, launching one "Buran" cost as much as launching hundreds of disposable missiles. However, the Soviet ship was originally designed as a military space system. After the end of the Cold War, this aspect has ceased to be relevant, which cannot be said about spending. Therefore, his fate was decided.
In general, the program for the creation of the Buran multipurpose spacecraft provided for the creation of five ships. Of these, only three were constructed (the construction of the rest was only started, but after the program was closed, all the backlog for them was destroyed). The first of them visited space, the second became an attraction in the Moscow Gorky Park, and the third is in the Museum of Technology in Sinsheim, Germany. 
But first, technological mock-ups (9 in total) were created in full size, which were intended for strength tests and crew training.
It should also be noted that almost enterprises from all over the Soviet Union took part in the creation of Buran. So, at the Kharkov "Energopribor" was created a complex of autonomous control "Energy", which took the ship into space. Design and manufacture of parts for the ship was carried out at the Antonov ASTC, and An-225 Mriya was also created, which was used to deliver the Buran.
To test the spacecraft "Buran" 27 candidates were trained, which were divided into military and civilian test pilots. This division was due to the fact that this ship was planned to be used not only for defense purposes, but also for the needs National economy... Colonel Ivan Bachurin and an experienced civilian pilot Igor Vovk were appointed leaders of the group (this was the reason that his group was named "wolf pack"). 
Despite the fact that the flight of "Buran" was carried out in automatic mode, nevertheless, seven testers managed to visit orbit, however, on other ships: I. Vovk, A. Levchenko, V. Afanasyev, A. Artsebarsky, G. Manakov, L. Kadenyuk, V. Tokarev. Unfortunately, many of them are no longer among us.
The civilian detachment lost more testers - testers, continuing to prepare for the Buran program, simultaneously test other aircraft, flew and died one after another. O. Kononenko was the first to die. A. Levchenko followed him. A little later, A. Shchukin, R. Stankevichus, Y. Prikhodko, Y. Schaeffer also passed away.
Commander I. Vovk himself, having lost so many people close to him, left flight service in 2002. A few months later, trouble happened to the Buran ship itself: it was damaged by fragments of the roof of one of the assembly and test buildings at the Baikonur cosmodrome, where the ship was in storage. 
In some mass media you can find information that in fact there were two flights of "Buran", but one was unsuccessful, therefore information about it is classified. So, in particular, it is said that in 1992 from the Baikonur cosmodrome, another ship was launched, similar to the "Buran" - "Baikal", but in the first seconds of the flight the engine malfunctioned. Automation worked, the ship began to return back.
In fact, everything is explained very simply. In 1992, all work on the "Buran" was stopped. As for the name, initially the ship bore the name “Baikal”, but the top Soviet leadership did not like it, which recommended changing it to a more sonorous “Buran”. At least, this is what G. Ponomarev, the commander of the engineering and testing department of the Baikonur cosmodrome, who was directly involved in the program, asserts.
Until now, disputes have not subsided as to whether the Buran was needed at all, and why it was necessary to spend such great amount funds for a project that is now not even used. But be that as it may, for that time it was a real breakthrough in space science, and even today it has not yet been surpassed.
Pictures appeared on the web Russian photographer, who at one of the photo sessions found the last refuge of the legendary Soviet reusable spacecraft "Buran", which had been in orbit only once. Most likely, this was the last photo shoot of the space titan.
Russian photographer Alexander Markin during one of his outdoor photo sessions came across an amazing place. The photographer was lucky enough to find the last refuge of the legendary Soviet space shuttle "Buran", which managed to visit orbit only once.
In fact, Markin did not find the remains of himself "Burana", but its first experimental prototype. The prototype could not be called a spaceship in full, since it was created exclusively for testing in a wind tunnel. Now this prototype is living out its last days. The ship is in a special warehouse for military space debris. Now it is in complete disrepair and, most likely, is waiting for its turn for disposal.
In the meantime, it is a proud monument to the once actively developing space industry of the USSR. Let us recall that the Buran spacecraft is an orbital-rocket plane, a reusable transport spacecraft created in the USSR. From the appearance of the spacecraft, it is not difficult to guess that it was the response of the NASA Space Shuttles. Unfortunately, "Buran" was destined to perform only one single flight.
On November 15, 1988, "Buran" was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome. Having entered the earth's orbit, he made two complete orbits, after which he landed. The flight was test and unmanned. The collapse of the USSR did not go to the benefit of the space program. In 1990, the Buran project was suspended, and in 1993 it was completely curtailed. The only ship, along with the carriers, was stored in a hangar at Baikonur where it "died" in 2002 as a result of a roof collapse.
Despite such an inglorious "death", the cause of the Soviet ship lives on.
Despite the external resemblance to the American shuttles, "Buran" had many design differences. Most importantly, the ship could land on autopilot. Moreover, initially the designers did not want to add manual landing control to the Buran.
However, their decision was changed, after the requests of the astronauts themselves, who did not want to trust the automation so much. After the closure of the program, many of Buran's technologies were declassified and transferred to foreign colleagues from other aerospace agencies, including France, China and the United States. Everything modern ships going into orbit today are using systems that were once developed for the "Buran".
Continuing the topic more. We have collected the most interesting and unusual projects of ships of this class from around the world.
The areas highlighted in bold will be sorted out at the end.Shuttle and Buran
When you look at photographs of the Burana and Shuttle winged spaceships, you might get the impression that they are quite identical. At least there shouldn't be any fundamental differences. Despite the external similarity, these two space systems are still fundamentally different.
"Shuttle"
The Shuttle is a reusable transport spacecraft (MTKK). The ship has three liquid rocket engine(Rocket engine) operating on hydrogen. Oxidizing agent - liquid oxygen. To make an entry into a near-earth orbit, a huge amount of fuel and oxidizer is required. Therefore, the fuel tank is the largest element of the Space Shuttle system. The spacecraft is located on this huge tank and is connected to it by a system of pipelines through which fuel and oxidizer are supplied to the Shuttle's engines.
And all the same, the three powerful engines of the winged ship are not enough to go into space. Attached to the central tank of the system are two solid-propellant boosters - the most powerful rockets in the history of mankind to date. The greatest power is needed precisely at the start to move the multi-ton ship and lift it to the first four and a half dozen kilometers. Solid rocket boosters take on 83% of the load.
Another "Shuttle" takes off
At an altitude of 45 km, solid propellant boosters, having used up all the fuel, are separated from the ship and, by parachute, splash down in the ocean. Further, to an altitude of 113 km, the "shuttle" rises with the help of three rocket engines. After separating the tank, the ship flies for another 90 seconds by inertia and then, on a short time, two orbital maneuvering engines powered by self-igniting fuel are switched on. And the "shuttle" goes into a working orbit. And the tank enters the atmosphere, where it burns. Parts of it fall into the ocean.
Department of solid fuel accelerators
Orbital maneuvering engines are designed, as their name implies, for various maneuvers in space: to change orbital parameters, to dock to the ISS or to other spacecraft in low-Earth orbit. So the "shuttles" made several visits to the Hubble orbiting telescope for servicing.
And finally, these motors serve to create a braking impulse when returning to Earth.
The orbital stage is made according to the aerodynamic configuration of a tailless monoplane with a low-lying delta wing with a double sweep of the leading edge and with a vertical tail of the usual scheme. For atmospheric control, a two-piece rudder on the keel (here is an air brake), elevons on the trailing edge of the wing and a balancing flap under the aft fuselage are used. Retractable chassis, tricycle, with nose wheel.
Length 37.24 m, wingspan 23.79 m, height 17.27 m. "Dry" weight of the vehicle is about 68 tons, takeoff weight - from 85 to 114 tons (depending on the task and payload), landing with a return load on board - 84.26 tons.
The most important design feature of the airframe is its thermal protection.
In the most heat-stressed places (design temperature up to 1430 ° C), a multilayer carbon-carbon composite is used. There are few such places, it is mainly the fuselage nose and the leading edge of the wing. The lower surface of the entire apparatus (heating from 650 to 1260 ° C) is covered with tiles made of a material based on quartz fiber. Upper and lateral surfaces partially protected by low-temperature insulation tiles - where the temperature is 315-650 ° С; in other places, where the temperature does not exceed 370 ° С, felt material covered with silicone rubber is used.
The total weight of all four types of thermal protection is 7164 kg.
The orbital stage has a double-deck cockpit for seven astronauts.
Shuttle upper deck
In the case of an extended flight program or when performing rescue operations, up to ten people can be on board the shuttle. The cockpit contains flight controls, work and sleeping places, a kitchen, a storage room, a sanitary compartment, an airlock, operations and payload control posts, and other equipment. The total pressurized volume of the cabin is 75 cubic meters. m, the life support system maintains a pressure of 760 mm Hg in it. Art. and a temperature in the range of 18.3 - 26.6 ° C.
This system is made in an open version, that is, without the use of air and water regeneration. This choice is due to the fact that the duration of the shuttle flights was set at seven days, with the possibility of bringing it up to 30 days using additional funds. With such insignificant autonomy, the installation of regeneration equipment would mean an unjustified increase in weight, power consumption and the complexity of the onboard equipment.
The supply of compressed gases is enough to restore the normal atmosphere in the cabin in the event of one complete depressurization or to maintain a pressure of 42.5 mm Hg in it. Art. within 165 minutes when a small hole is formed in the hull shortly after the start.
The cargo compartment measures 18.3 x 4.6 m and a volume of 339.8 cubic meters. m is equipped with a "three-knee" manipulator 15.3 m long. working position cooling system radiators. The reflectivity of the radiator panels is such that they remain cold even when the sun is shining on them.
What the Space Shuttle can do and how it flies
If we imagine an assembled system flying horizontally, we will see an external fuel tank as its central element; an orbiter is docked to it from above, and accelerators are on the sides. The total length of the system is 56.1 m, and the height is 23.34 m. The overall width is determined by the wingspan of the orbital stage, that is, it is 23.79 m. The maximum launch weight is about 2,041,000 kg.
It is impossible to speak so unambiguously about the size of the payload, since it depends on the parameters of the target orbit and on the launch point of the spacecraft. Here are three options. The Space Shuttle system is capable of displaying:
29,500 kg when launched eastward from Cape Canaveral (Florida, East Coast) into an orbit with an altitude of 185 km and an inclination of 28º;
11 300 kg when launched from the Center space flights them. Kennedy into an orbit with an altitude of 500 km and an inclination of 55º;
14,500 kg when launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base (California, west coast) into a circumpolar orbit with an altitude of 185 km.
For shuttles, two landing strips were equipped. If the shuttle landed far from the launch site, it would return home on a Boeing 747
Boeing 747 takes shuttle to the cosmodrome
A total of five shuttles were built (two of them died in accidents) and one prototype.
When developing, it was envisaged that the shuttles would make 24 launches a year, and each of them would make up to 100 flights into space. In practice, they were used much less - by the end of the program in the summer of 2011, 135 launches were made, of which Discovery - 39, Atlantis - 33, Columbia - 28, Endeavor - 25, Challenger - 10 ...
The shuttle's crew consists of two astronauts - the commander and the pilot. The shuttle's largest crew is eight astronauts (Challenger, 1985).
Soviet reaction to the creation of the Shuttle
For the leaders of the USSR, the development of the "shuttle" produced great impression... It was considered that the Americans were developing an orbital bomber armed with space-to-ground missiles. The huge size of the "shuttle" and its ability to return cargo up to 14.5 tons to Earth were interpreted as a clear threat of the abduction of Soviet satellites and even the Soviet military space stations type "Almaz", which flew in space under the name "Salute". These estimates were erroneous, since the United States abandoned the idea of a space bomber in 1962 in connection with the successful development of a nuclear submarine and ground-based ballistic missiles.
Soyuz could easily fit in the shuttle's cargo hold
Soviet experts could not understand why 60 shuttle launches were needed per year - one launch per week! Where did the multitude of space satellites and stations for which the Shuttle would need come from? Soviet people living within another economic system, could not even imagine that the leadership of NASA, strenuously pushing a new space program in the government and Congress, was guided by the fear of being out of work. The lunar program was nearing completion and thousands of highly qualified specialists were out of work. And, most importantly, the respected and very well-paid NASA executives faced the disappointing prospect of parting with their inhabited offices.
Therefore, an economic feasibility study was prepared on the great financial benefit of reusable transport spacecraft in the event of abandonment of disposable rockets. But for Soviet people it was completely incomprehensible that the president and congress can spend nationwide funds only with great regard to the opinion of their constituents. In this connection, an opinion prevailed in the USSR that the Americans were creating a new QC for some future incomprehensible tasks, most likely military ones.
Reusable spacecraft "Buran"
In the Soviet Union, it was originally planned to create an improved copy of the Shuttle - the orbital plane OS-120, weighing 120 tons (the American shuttle weighed 110 tons at full load). Unlike the Shuttle, it was planned to equip the Buran with an ejection cockpit for two pilots and turbojet engines for landing at the airport.
The leadership of the armed forces of the USSR insisted on almost complete copying of the "shuttle". By this time, Soviet intelligence was able to obtain a lot of information on the American spacecraft. But it turned out to be not so simple. Domestic hydrogen-oxygen rocket engines turned out to be larger and heavier than American ones. Moreover, in terms of power, they were inferior to overseas ones. Therefore, instead of three rocket engines, it was necessary to install four. But on the orbital plane there was simply no room for four propulsion engines.
At the "shuttle" 83% of the load at the start was carried by two solid-propellant boosters. In the Soviet Union, it was not possible to develop such powerful solid-propellant missiles. Missiles of this type were used as ballistic carriers of sea and land-based nuclear charges. But they did not reach the required power very, very much. Therefore, the Soviet designers had the only opportunity - to use liquid-propellant rockets as accelerators. Under the Energia-Buran program, very successful kerosene-oxygen RD-170s were created, which served as an alternative to solid-fuel accelerators.
The very location of the Baikonur cosmodrome forced the designers to increase the power of their launch vehicles. It is known that the closer the launch pad is to the equator, the greater the load one and the same rocket can put into orbit. The American cosmodrome at Cape Canaveral has a 15% advantage over Baikonur! That is, if a rocket launched from Baikonur can lift 100 tons, then it will launch 115 tons into orbit when launched from Cape Canaveral!
Geographic conditions, differences in technology, characteristics of the created engines and a different design approach - all influenced the appearance of "Buran". Based on all these realities, a new concept and a new orbital vehicle OK-92, weighing 92 tons, were developed. Four oxygen-hydrogen engines were transferred to the central fuel tank and the second stage of the Energia launch vehicle was obtained. Instead of two solid-propellant boosters, it was decided to use four rockets on liquid fuel kerosene-oxygen with four-chamber RD-170 engines. Four-chamber means four nozzles; a nozzle with a large diameter is extremely difficult to manufacture. Therefore, the designers go to the complication and weighting of the engine by designing it with several smaller nozzles. How many nozzles, so many combustion chambers with a bunch of pipelines for the supply of fuel and oxidizer and with all the "mooring". This link was made according to the traditional, "royal" scheme, similar to the "alliances" and "east", became the first stage of "Energy".
"Buran" in flight
The Buran cruise ship itself became the third stage of the launch vehicle, similar to the Soyuz. The only difference is that the Buran was located on the side of the second stage, while the Soyuz was at the very top of the launch vehicle. Thus, the classic scheme of a three-stage disposable space system was obtained, with the only difference that the orbital ship was reusable.
Reusability was another problem of the Energia-Buran system. For the Americans, the shuttles were designed for 100 flights. For example, orbital maneuvering engines could withstand up to 1000 turns. After preventive maintenance, all elements (except for the fuel tank) were suitable for launching into space.
Solid propellant booster picked up by a special vessel
Solid propellant boosters were parachuted into the ocean, picked up by special NASA vessels and delivered to the manufacturer's plant, where they underwent preventive maintenance and were filled with fuel. The Shuttle itself was also thoroughly checked, prevented and repaired.
Defense Minister Ustinov, in an ultimatum, demanded that the Energia-Buran system be maximally recyclable. Therefore, the designers were forced to tackle this problem. Formally, the side boosters were considered reusable, suitable for ten launches.... But in fact, it did not come to this for many reasons. Take at least the fact that American accelerators flopped into the ocean, and Soviet ones fell in the Kazakh steppe, where landing conditions were not as benign as the warm ocean waters. And a liquid-propellant rocket is a more delicate creation. than solid fuel. "Buran" was also designed for 10 flights.
In general, the reusable system did not work, although the achievements were obvious. The Soviet orbiter, freed from large propulsion engines, received more powerful engines for maneuvering in orbit. Which, in the case of its use as a space "fighter-bomber", gave it great advantages. And plus more turbojet engines for flight and landing in the atmosphere. In addition, a powerful rocket was created with the first stage on kerosene fuel, and the second on hydrogen. It was such a rocket that the USSR lacked to win the lunar race. In terms of its characteristics, Energia was practically equal to the American Saturn-5 rocket that sent Apollo 11 to the moon.
"Buran" has a great external accessibility with the American "Shuttle". Korabl poctroen Po cheme camoleta tipa "bechvoctka» c treugolnym krylom peremennoy ctrelovidnocti, imeet aerodinamicheckie organy upravleniya, rabotayuschie at pocadke pocle vozvrascheniya in plotnye cloi atmocfery - wheel napravleniya and elevony. He was able to make a controlled launch in the atmosphere with a lateral maneuver of up to 2000 kilometers.
The length of the "Buren" is 36.4 meters, the wingspan is about 24 meters, the height of the ship on the chassis is more than 16 meters. The old mass of the ship is more than 100 tons, of which 14 tons are used for fuel. In nocovoy otcek vctavlena germetichnaya tselnocvarnaya kabina for ekipazha and bolshey chacti apparatury for obecpecheniya poleta in coctave raketno-kocmicheckogo komplekca, avtonomnogo poleta nA orbite, cpucka and pocadki. The volume of the cabin is over 70 cubic meters.
When vozvraschenii in plotnye cloi atmocfery naibolee teplonapryazhennye uchactki poverhnocti korablya rackalyayutcya do graducov 1600, zhe teplo, dohodyaschee nepocredctvenno do metallicheckoy konctruktsii korablya, ne dolzhno prevyshat 150 graducov. Therefore, "BURAN" distinguished its powerful heat protection, providing normal temperature conditions for the design of a ship during flight in aircraft
The heat-resistant cover of more than 38 thousand tiles is made of special materials: quartz fiber, high-performance core, no core Ceramic wood has the ability to accumulate heat, without passing it to the ship's hull. The total mass of this armor was about 9 tons.
The length of the "Burena" cargo compartment is about 18 meters. In its extensive cargo compartment, it is possible to accommodate a payload with a mass of up to 30 tons. There it was possible to place large space vehicles - large satellites, blocks of orbital stations. The landing mass of the ship is 82 tons.
"BURAN" was used with all the necessary systems and equipment for both automatic and piloted flight. This and the means of navigation and control, and radiotechnical and television systems, and automatic controls for the regulation of warm and efficient
Buran's cabin
The main engine installation, two groups of engines for maneuvering are located at the end of the tail section and in the front part of the frame.
November 18, 1988 "Buran" went on its flight into space. It was launched by the Energia launch vehicle.
After entering the near-earth orbit, "Buran" made 2 orbits around the Earth (in 205 minutes), then began to descend to Baikonur. The landing was made at a special Yubileiny airfield.
The flight took place in automatic mode, there was no crew on board. The orbital flight and landing were performed using an on-board computer and special software. Auto mode flight was the main difference from the Space Shuttle, in which the landing is made in manual mode astronauts. The flight of Buran entered the Guinness Book of Records as unique (previously no one planted spacecraft in fully automatic mode).
Automatic landing of a 100-ton whopper is a very difficult thing. We didn’t make any hardware, only software landing mode - from the moment of reaching (during descent) an altitude of 4 km to stopping on the runway. I will try to tell you very briefly how this algorithm was made.
First, the theorist writes the algorithm in the language high level and verifies its performance against test cases. This algorithm, which is written by one person, is "responsible" for one relatively small operation. Then it is combined into a subsystem, and it is dragged to the modeling stand. The stand "around" the working, on-board algorithm contains models - a model of the dynamics of the apparatus, models executive bodies, sensor systems, etc. They are also written in a high-level language. Thus, the algorithmic subsystem is tested in the "mathematical flight".
Then the subsystems are put together and checked again. And then the algorithms are "translated" from a high-level language into the language of the on-board vehicle (BCVM). To check them, already in the hypostasis of the onboard program, there is another modeling stand, which includes an onboard computer. And around her is the same - mathematical models. They are, of course, modified compared to the models in a purely mathematical bench. The model "spins" in the mainframe general purpose... Do not forget, these were the 1980s, personal computers were just beginning and were very low-powered. It was the mainframe time, we had a pair of two EC-1061s. And for communication of an on-board vehicle with a mathematical model in a universal computer, special equipment is needed; it is also needed as part of the stand for various tasks.
We called this stand semi-natural - after all, in it, besides all mathematics, there was a real on-board computer. It implemented the mode of operation of the onboard programs, very close to the real-time mode. It takes a long time to explain, but for the on-board computer it was indistinguishable from the "real" real time.
Someday I'll get myself together and write how the semi-natural modeling mode works - for this and other cases. In the meantime, I just want to explain the composition of our department - the team that did all this. It had a complex department that dealt with the sensor and executive systems involved in our programs. There was an algorithmic department - these actually wrote onboard algorithms and worked them out on a mathematical bench. Our department was engaged in a) translation of programs into the on-board computer language, b) creation of special equipment for a semi-natural stand (here I worked) and c) programs for this equipment.
Our department even had our own designers to make documentation for the manufacture of our blocks. And there was also a department that was in charge of operating the aforementioned EC-1061 pair.
The output product of the department, and therefore of the entire design bureau within the framework of the "storm" theme, was a program on magnetic tape (1980s!), Which was taken to work out further.
Further - this is the stand of the enterprise-developer of the control system. After all, it is clear that the control system aircraft- this is not only an on-board computer. This system was made by a much larger enterprise than us. They were the developers and "owners" of the on-board computer, they stuffed it with a variety of programs that perform the whole range of tasks for controlling the ship from pre-launch preparation to post-landing shutdown of systems. And for us, our landing algorithm, in that on-board computer, only part of the computer time was allocated, in parallel (more precisely, I would say, quasi-parallel), other software systems... After all, if we calculate the landing trajectory, this does not mean that we no longer need to stabilize the apparatus, turn on and off all kinds of equipment, support thermal conditions, generate telemetry and so on, and so on, and so on ...
However, let's get back to working out the landing mode. After working out in a standard redundant on-board computer as part of the entire set of programs, this set was taken to the stand of the enterprise-developer of the Buran spacecraft. And there was a stand, called a full-size stand, in which an entire ship was involved. When programs were running, he waved elevons, hummed drives and all that stuff. And the signals came from real accelerometers and gyroscopes.
Then I saw enough of all this on the Breeze-M accelerator, but for now my role was quite modest. I did not travel outside my design bureau ...
So, we passed the full-size booth. Do you think that's all? No.
Next was the flying laboratory. This is the Tu-154, whose control system is configured so that the aircraft reacts to the control actions generated by the on-board computer, as if it were not a Tu-154, but a Buran. Of course, it is possible to quickly "return" to normal mode. "Buransky" was switched on only for the duration of the experiment.
The culmination of the tests were 24 flights of the Buran, made especially for this stage. It was called BTS-002, had 4 engines from the same Tu-154 and could take off from the runway itself. He sat down in the process of testing, of course, with the engines turned off, because "in the state" the spacecraft sits in the gliding mode, there are no atmospheric engines on it.
The complexity of this work, or rather, our software-algorithmic complex, can be illustrated by the following. In one of the BTS-002 flights. flew "on the program" until the main landing gear touched the runway. Then the pilot took control and lowered the nose strut. Then the program turned on again and kept the device to a complete stop.
By the way, this is pretty understandable. While the apparatus is in the air, it has no restrictions on rotation around all three axes. And it revolves, as expected, around the center of mass. Here he touched the strip with the wheels of the main struts. What's happening? Roll rotation is now impossible at all. Pitch rotation is no longer around the center of mass, but around the axis passing through the points of contact of the wheels, and it is still free. And the rotation along the course is now determined in a complex way by the ratio of the steering torque from the rudder and the friction force of the wheels on the strip.
Here is such a difficult regime, so radically different from both flight and run along the strip "at three points". Because when the front wheel falls into the lane, it’s like in a joke: no one is spinning anywhere ...
In total, it was planned to build 5 orbital ships. In addition to Buran, the Tempest was almost ready and almost half of the Baikal. Two more ships that are in the initial stage of production have not received names. The Energia-Buran system was unlucky - it was born at an unfortunate time for it. The Soviet economy was no longer able to finance costly space programs. And some kind of fate pursued the cosmonauts who were preparing for flights on the "Buran". Test pilots V. Bukreev and A. Lysenko died in plane crashes in 1977, even before joining the cosmonaut group. In 1980, test pilot O. Kononenko died. 1988 took the lives of A. Levchenko and A. Shchukin. After the flight of "Buran" R. Stankevichus, the co-pilot for the manned flight of the winged spacecraft, died in a plane crash. I. Volk was appointed the first pilot.
Buran was also not lucky. After the first and only successful flight, the ship was kept in a hangar at the Baikonur cosmodrome. On May 12, 2012, 2002, the overlap of the workshop in which the Buran and the Energia model were located collapsed. On this sad chord, the existence of the winged spaceship, which had shown such great hopes, ended.
With approximately the same cost of programs, for some reason orbital stage - the Buran spacecraft itself had initially the declared resource is 10 flights against 100 for the Shuttle. Why this is so - they do not even explain. The reasons are probably very hard-hitting. About pride in the fact that "our Buran sat on the machine, but the Pindos could not do that" ... And the point of this, moreover, from the first flight to rely on primitive automation, risking breaking a fucking expensive device (Shuttle)? The cost of this "fuck-up" issue is too high. And further. Why should we take our word for it that the flight is really unmanned? Ah, "we were told so" ..
Ah, the life of an astronaut is above all, you say? Yes, do not tell me .... I think that the Pindos could, but you see, they thought differently. Why do I think that they could - because I know: just in those years they already worked out(they worked, and not just "flew") a fully automatic flight of a Boeing-747 (yes, the one to which the Shuttle is attached in the photo) from Florida, Fort Lauderdale to Alaska to Anchorage, that is, across the entire continent. Back in 1988 (this is about the alleged suicide bombers who hijacked 9/11. 747, which, as seen in the photo, is equal to several Shuttles).
The level of our technological lag is well reflected in the photo of the onboard equipment of the cabins of the spacecraft under consideration. Take another look and compare. I am writing all this, I repeat: for objectivity, and not because of "groveling before the West," with which I have never been sick ..
As a fat point. Now these are destroyed too, already hopelessly lagging electronics industries.
What, then, are the vaunted Topol-M and others equipped with? I do not know! And nobody knows! But, not their own - this can be said for sure. And all this "not his own" may very well be stuffed with (certainly, deliberately) hardware "bookmarks", and at the right moment all this will become a dead heap of metal. This, too, was all worked out back in 1991, when Desert Storm, and the Iraqis were remotely turned off air defense systems. Kind of like the French.
Therefore, when I watch the next video "Military Secret" with Prokopenko, or something else about "getting up from his knees", "analog-shit" in relation to new high-tech wunderwaves from the field of rocket-space and aviation high-tech, then ... No, not I smile, there is nothing to smile about. Alas. Soviet Space is hopelessly fucked by its successor. And all these victorious reports - about all sorts of "breakthroughs" - for alternatively gifted quilted jackets
