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Author
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Topic: Fate of Russian Buran space shuttle OK-2.01
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Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 47944
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 09-29-2010 07:36 AM
   
This photo gallery from MK.ru shows what looks to be the shell of a Russian Buran orbiter discarded as trash: Seemingly abandoned spaceship on the streets of Moscow - it is something from the realm of fantasy. But alas, this is the true reality. Correspondent "MK" discovered orbiting Soviet "Buran" placed like garbage on the outskirts of the capital. Nobody cares what was once a symbol of cosmic power of our country.  Anyone have an idea as to which Buran model this is? |
SpaceAholic
Member Posts: 5025
From: Sierra Vista, Arizona
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 09-29-2010 08:07 AM
The owner of this Buran Space Shuttle site probably knows... |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 47944
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 09-29-2010 08:13 AM
Comparing photos and reports on that site to the one from the MK.ru gallery, it would appear to be Buran OK-2.01: The completion of model 2.01 at the stop of the project was estimated to 30-50%. As you can see on the photographs it seems that it has been dismantled, after few years in the Tushino factory, near Moscow, it was moved in October 2004 on a car-park. In particular, the photos posted here seem to be a match. |
Greggy_D
Member Posts: 1005
From: Michigan
Registered: Jul 2006
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posted 09-29-2010 08:53 AM
What a shame. |
Fezman92
Member Posts: 1031
From: New Jersey, USA
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 09-29-2010 09:45 AM
That's really sad. What's going to happen to it? |
MrSpace86
Member Posts: 1618
From: Gardner, KS
Registered: Feb 2003
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posted 09-29-2010 10:13 AM
That Buran-Energia site is the best website out there for all things Buran. You can spend hours reading all the information on such a tragic program.As for this particular Buran, it seems the Soviets don't mind people going up to the shuttle and just photographing components and even taking samples. It would be interesting if one of the U.S. museums that don't get a U.S. space shuttle, try to get this or any other Russian space shuttle, restore it, and have it on display. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 47944
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 09-29-2010 10:36 AM
As the Moscow News clarifies, the Buran is not open to the public but can be accessed by averting security. It's not that easy to reach the abandoned spaceship, but it is possible, writes Moskovsky Komsomolets. Buran's resting place is also a storage spot for construction materials and is protected by a security guard and barbed wire fences.But a side entry through a neighbouring plot can beat the security and grant an up-close look at the remains of the space-age dream. |
MrSpace86
Member Posts: 1618
From: Gardner, KS
Registered: Feb 2003
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posted 07-10-2011 12:34 AM
I thought this article would interest some of you. Buran 2.01 (the third Buran "built") will be restored! On 22 June 2011 during the day Buran "Article 2.01" (the third flight article whose production was aborted at stage of 50% completion) was put on barge and sailed along the Moscow river to town of Zhukovsky where it will supposedly undergo a restoration to be prepared for display at a biannual MAKS air show.Before 2004, Buran 2.01 was stored in a warehouse of Tushino Machine Building plant. In 2004 private entrepreneur Igor Rudinsky, owner of "SIA International" pharmaceutical company purchased the partly disassembled airframe from Tushino plant for $120,000 and moved it to a pier on the bank of Khimki water reservoir where it sat until recently, suffering from annual cycle of weather and occasionally, from vandals. The article has some really interesting photos that I have never seen before. I think it is quite informative. Enjoy and post more info or pics if you find it! Editor's note: Threads merged. |
dom
Member Posts: 978
From:
Registered: Aug 2001
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posted 07-10-2011 04:22 PM
This is great news and certainly looks like $120,000 well spent!These Russian orbiters need to be saved and put on display just like their NASA counterparts. Nothing like them will ever be built again. Unfortunately the original flown Buran shuttle is now landfill after being destroyed in a tragic roof collapse in 2002, whilst the second orbiter (97% complete) is the property of Kazakhstan and is locked away in a hangar in Baikonur. If this one is restored it might be the only "real" Soviet shuttle anyone will get to see up-close. |
MrSpace86
Member Posts: 1618
From: Gardner, KS
Registered: Feb 2003
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posted 07-10-2011 05:46 PM
I did see a few photos taken in 2008 where the building that housed Buran 1.01 (the flown one) has been pretty untouched since the roof collapse. Buran is still sitting there, mangled, torn, destroyed, abandoned. Kind of grotesque if you ask me. |
BMacKinnon
Member Posts: 235
From: Waterford, MI. USA
Registered: Jul 2007
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posted 08-30-2011 08:12 PM
There is a Buran on display in Germany.The Buran prototype OK-GLI shown in the Technik Museum Speyer was built in 1984 and was used for testing gliding-flight and landing after reentry into the atmosphere (from their website). |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 47944
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 08-30-2011 08:23 PM
More about the Buran-Analogue 002 (OK-GLI) at the Speyer Technical Museum can be read here. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 47944
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 03-08-2022 03:07 PM
It looks like Buran 2.01 is on the move again. From Katya Pavlushchenko (via Twitter): Several followers sent me a link to the article which said that a Buran hull, transported by truck, was spotted near Moscow this Saturday. Looks like that this is Buran 2.01 [being] moved from Zhukovsky airport to private Zadorozhny's Museum of Technics.  |
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